Mijo

Try providing the customer a diagram with where they should be measuring, then have them take three different measurements and take the average of the three. That's currently what we do and it's worked fairly well, thus far anyway. Our collars are for small dogs, with only about a 1/4" between holes, so if it's off by a little that could mean using the first or last hole rather than the middle.

really nice, particularly since it's your first.

Thanks for sharing how you achieved that seemless look.

Beautiful collar, the lining looks very soft to the touch. How did you affix the different layers together, there doesn't appear to be a seam anywhere? I did something very similar with my d-ring but it didn't look as clean as yours turned out.

Amazing all around.

I second X's suggestion on Mr. Park's posted / pinned edge finishing techniques. When I started out I was just using the eco flo trag and nylon burnisher from Tandy. Since then I've abandoned trag altogether for glyrine soap and saddle paste, i've also picked up a drill burnisher from spinner. Mr. Park's techique is more laborous than what i was doing before but the results are worth it, IMO.

Dink - There's another thread about Square up in one of the other subforums. If I remember correctly there were a handful of us that have started using Square and were happy with it. My wife just upgraded to a iphone 4gs and transactions go through even faster than they did on the 3gs.

Very nice.

I'm using a #6 chisel to mark the holes, i punch the leather so that the tips of the chisel are just barely through the leather. I don't use an awl when stitching as the needles and a little bit of force are enough, I'm wondering if maybe I used an over stitch wheel and an awl in place of the chisel I would get better results. As far as the groove stitcher, i've been using the one that tandy sells with the guide. Maybe I should be making a deeper groove so that the stitches sit into the leather deeper. I think consistent tension is probably a big factor on why my stitches don't look uniform. I have a lacing pony (from tandy) but I didn't use it for the harness since the sections that are stitched are very short, less than 1.5 inches in most cases. That's just laziness on my part since it seems to take just as long to set up the lacing pony as it does to actually stitch each section. Thanks for the input / comments, as it given me some new ideas on what I can try to improve my stitching.

Aaron - thanks for the encouraging words. I started working on a set of handstitched collars and leads for my other two dogs, just to get some additional practice on my techniques. winterbear - thanks for mentioning the issues you have had with brighter colored latigo, it's good to know that I'm not the only one whose experienced finishing problems (particularly with the beveling). I'm extremely disappointed that you have also seen this problem in the more unussual colors of latigo as I really wanted to use some different colors. I'm probably going to try and find some other type of unussually dyed sides (I.e. bridle, harness, etc) of leather to see if that same strange layer is present. I have some salmon / pink bridle that also has a similar layer but it's not nearly as thick and doesn't leave the edge rippled or ragged when finishing. Btw, I used plain eyelets and not grommets.

Just bumping this thread before it gets lost in this subforum. 80 views and only one person has commented thus far. Any critism is greatly appreciated, don't be afraid to hurt my feelings. My edge finishing looks a little rough, I should have spend more time on it since I was doing it by hand rather than with a powerdrill. I can also see that I didn't pull the thread tight enough when I was stitching the strap keeper just below one of the buckles.

No, it's a regular walking harness pattern just scaled down for my 9 lb dog. The pattern is widely used, and I think there's even a thread where someone posted their version of the pattern. Thanks for commenting.

I took a sewing class at tandy last month and tried my hand at handstitching a small dog harness, this is my second attempt. It's made with 8-9 oz red latigo leather from the hide house and linen thread from tandy. I used a #6 overstitch wheel and the edges were not beveled but they are hand finished using hidepounder's pinned technique. I normally use a powerdrill with one of spinner's burnishers but i just wanted to try finishing by hand. My stitching is still pretty rough, you can see where I backed stitched. the red latigo has this weird top layer on the hair side, it's almost feels like it's some sort of bonded synthetic material. when i sanded the edges it caused ripples on that top layer, slightly visible in the pictures. When i tried to bevel the sanded edge the top layer dragged the beveler and the edge looked ragged, but the layer beneath the top layer bevels just fine. That's why I didn't bevel the edges. i've seen this weird top layer on other latigo sides that are dyed "designer" colors (i.e. royal blue, green, etc.). Anyone else see this weird top layer before? If so, what is it? I choose red b/c i was planning on making some harnesses in the local team colors (i.e. SF - 49rs, Oakland - A's & raiders). Let me know what you guys think, but more importantly what can i do to improve.

I went with Scary's and your suggestion and changed my order from 4 cord to 7 cord. I was real hesistant to go down in the number of cords and your comment about Tandy's 6 cord being bulkier sold me on royalwoods 7 cord. I saw that campbell and bosche offers a 5 cord waxed linen, but they only offer it in white and no colors.

The Hide House will not, I specifically asked about that when I was there recently. If you haven't have been there yet, as I see your in the Bay Area, I highly suggest you visit their warehouse in Napa. Once you set up an account you can call in your order and if you order early enough in the day you can ussually receive it within one business day without any additional shipping charges, b/c your in the bay area. That can definately save you some time and gas.

There's another thread on here some where that discusses the same subject, or something very similar. For my self though, if the amount of left over leather I have is small enough I'll ussually roll it up (flesh side out) and slide it into a long cylindical shipping tube for posters / blue prints. If you go into a Fed Ex store you can ussually get their triangular tubes for free but those tend to be shorter in length. If I have the left over leather that is too long for a poster tube I'll ussually roll the leather, tie it with string and then wrap the rolled leather in paper (to keep the dust off). I store the rolled leather vertically in a milk crate, to keep them from falling over. All the leather I purchase / use is latigo and pretty thick (8-11 oz) and this has worked for me thus far. Hope that helps or at least gives you some idea...

Scary - Thanks for the input / comments. I thought the tandy waxed linen thread looked a little thick on my projects, I should have been using 5 ply to go with the #6 overstitch. I make small dog (<20 lbs) harness, collars and leads so I'll probably go with 4 cord thread from Royalwood as the 7 cord will probably look worst than the 6 cord tandy thread i'm already using.

556 - Thanks for the link, I was actually looking around for a supplier for colored linen thread. Is ply the same as cord? If it is I noticed that Royalwood doesn't carry 5 cord linen thread and according to the the Art of Hand Sewing when using a #6 overstitch your suppose to use 5 cord linen thread. In this case is it better to go up or down in cords / plys? Spence - No worries. I thought maybe the linen thread was something new they were carrying and their website had not been updated yet.

I believe Weaver offers English bridle leather, but I'm not exactly sure if it is processed here in the US. I was just at the Hide House in Northern CA and I know they carry bridle leather but I don't know if they carry English.

Spence - I checked mainethread's website and I don't see linen thread on there. Is that something I would need to call them about, or is it listed on the website and I'm just looking in the wrong place? I saw the cotton thread section but my understanding is that cotton and linen are not the same thing Katsass - Is the waxed linen thread from springfield better than what Tandy offers? Looking at the description of the thread on Springfield's website it appears to be the same. I just started hand sewing myself so I'm also interest in what other people are using.

Just wanted to bump this thread as I finally made it to the Hide House in Napa, last Friday. I was really impressed with their facility and the shear volume of their inventory. Their staff was very friendly and extremely accomodating, though they did mention that I caught them during some downtime and normally they don't have the time to give customers a tour. I'm definately going to use them as my main supplier for leather, as I haven't been that thrilled with my interactions with Weaver.

Busted, just wondering why you don't use latigo for belts. I make small dog harness and leads and I only order latigo or bridle leather, I've been thinking of making myself a belt with some of the black latigo leather that I have. I'd use the bridle leather but the only color I have right now is pink and I don't want a pink belt.

I was going to make the same comment that Tree Reaper made, b/c I also saw that mentioned in the same sewing book. However, I think your probably right that it's not likely that the collar will fail b/c you sew perpendicular to the length of the collar. IMO, the collar almost looks unfinished when you don't sew that line. Your collar looks great, by the way...

Sweet day of the dead skulls. How big of a dog is the harness for? Please post the finished harness.

After numerous failed attempts to purchase a hand crank splitter on eBay I bought an Osborne 86 splitter. I have no complaints about the 86, once you get it dialed in it's fast and easy to use. The 86 isn't set up to skive but I image the models that are would do an excellent job.