paradoxbox

Very nice cases. I made a few of these (exact same design) last month. Your skill is much better than mine though.

Nice clean looking braid. I can understand your frustration with it. I have gotten to the final braid on a 5 strand bracelet a few times and then lost my place, good luck trying to get the ensuing knot untangled to save the braid... bleh!

Very very nice. Where are the belt clips from? I've seen a few people using those.

About your front piece not fitting properly, when you are putting the pieces together (before sewing) you need to make sure that it fits at that point. Then, when you are preparing to sew, you need to glue it into place using the same curve or shape that the boot will be in when someone's foot is in it. THEN and ONLY then can you sew it together. I had a few similar problems when making my first shoe and the problem was down to me not putting the top piece of leather on following the curve of the shoe correctly. The result was something that fit the pattern but didn't fit properly on the shoe. Lastly if it comes down to it and you want to make another pair, try wrapping the boots in plastic wrap then taping over them (with your foot in them) with masking tape. Overlay the front piece of the pattern and see if it matches - if it doesn't, with a pencil draw a new pattern in a shape that fits on the masking tape with pencil, cut it out and replace the old pattern piece with it.

Thanks for the responses. I don't believe that this is an incomplete machine, everything is there and functioning as it should except for a motor and table. The thread takeup spring doesn't look like the typical hoop on other machines, but it's there. I use another Seiko machine (PW-6) elsewhere and the threading system is really different from this machine but they both stitch perfectly. Here's a photo of the top of the machine. Adjusting the very large screw on the top left seems to have relieved the pressure of the presser foot somewhat and has made it OK for all but soft leathers like suede. I guess I'll do suede projects on a domestic machine. But the feed dogs are still digging into the bottom side of my projects. I tried duct tape as one member here mentioned in another thread but the tape gets pulled off quite quickly.. Maybe some kind of putty or similar product would do the trick..? Or if there's a way to reduce the pressure..!

I have a small old domestic sewing machine for projects that don't call for anything heavy duty, it has a bobbin winder on the top. I just stick the bobbin on there and wind up a few and set them aside for later use! Or as others mentioned, a drill works great too.

Hi Bob, thanks for the advice. About the hole, I'm not sure what you mean as there are a bunch of small holes on the top of the machine but after checking with an LED flashlight I couldn't see any kind of adjustment screw inside them. Anyway I tried turning the big brass screw that's on the top of the machine on the same axis as the needle, a bit more to the left (almost all the way) and tried sewing a different piece of slightly thinner leather and it seemed OK on the top, no more deep presser foot line in the leather. I guess the test pieces I was using before were pushing the limits of the machine a bit too much. Unfortunately the feed dogs are still marking the leather a bit though. Is there any way to back off the pressure of the feed dogs? Also while I'm in here, can a roller wheel be installed on this machine?

So I bought my machine, a Seiko HC-2B and I really like it. Right now I'm using it without a motor which is a bit slow but it's still much much faster than hand sewing. Unfortunately the machine's walking foot and feed dogs have very aggressive pressure settings and are putting deep marks in the leather. There is a screw knob on the top of the machine where most machines have a pressure adjustment, but I tried turning it to no avail, there didn't seem to be any change. But I know that sometimes there's a specific way changes need to be made on seiko machines so maybe I did it wrong..! The machine itself seems to be somewhat rare and I can't find a user manual for it either in English nor Japanese, but I have heard that most Seiko machines are copies of Singers so maybe someone can point me in the right direction. Does anyone know how I can reduce the pressure foot and feed dog pressure? Here's a picture of the machine:

Does that color the beads as well or just the underlying leather? Someone at a shop here told me that it's very difficult to dye the actual beads outside of the tannery and that painting it is the best option. It's unfortunate because I have a huge supply of stingray skins in an ugly teal/green color for $5 each.

Welcome. Shoes are a tough way to start leatherwork but they are fun and making shoes never ceases to impress family/friends. Sandals and make nice gifts in the summer. I started leather last year and then shortly afterwards I started learning about shoes at a shoemaking course. I'm still on my second pair due to my crazy schedule but I have made some room-slippers and things of that nature as well. It's great fun!

Hi there, I ended up not buying this machine as at the same time a very lucky auction for me came up at the same price with no bidders. I ended up buying a cylinder arm Seiko HC-2B in fantastic condition, the only problem was the stitch knob plastic was broken, the knob still works the plastic is just broken. Besides that it's completely fine and sews beautifully, and is especially useful for me because I make shoes which have weird shapes that are difficult to do on a flatbed machine. Now I am on the prowl for a motor and a stand as the machine did not come with either (Not a big deal, I am content to use it hand-cranked at the moment as it's still worlds faster than hand sewing) here's a pic of the model of machine i bought. it seems to be a toughly built machine.

Another version I whipped up. Starting to get a bit better at stitching by hand but still need some work.

Thanks for the continual advice. Reading some of those threads and also some threads about hand stitching it became apparent to me that having a stitching pony would be really helpful. Until now I had been holding my items in my feet which works well and is a traditional Japanese method of doing lots of work like this but after a while it's pretty tiring.. Anyway I got a stitching pony and was surprised at just how much faster my hand stitching got. Here's another version of the same project above I completed tonight, a commuter pass / coin case made out of very suede-like leather:

Thanks for the advice!. I took your advice about gluing together before sewing, it does seem to have helped keeping alignment closer overall. Here is a little coin/card case/wallet thing I made. It ain't perfect but this is my first real trip into this type of leatherwork! The hand stitching took a while, but I got through it.

So I after giving up on the last machine I had been thinking about thanks to the generous advice and warnings from people here, I have found a set of Seiko LSW-8BL machines priced at about $500 each, including tables / motors etc. They both look to be in good condition with just some paint wear. One of them is an 8BL CS Coarse Stitch model which I guess means it has the ability to do longer stitches. Does anyone have any opinions on these? Also, the seller of both machines is the same, but the CS machine is missing the presser feet. I could replace them fairly cheaply from what I can see online, but does anyone have any advice about whether it's even worth it? My typical projects are shoes and sandals, commuter pass cases, key tags, and bags. Here's an 8BL. The 8BL CS version looks the same except there's a small adjustment knob to the left of where the blue sticker is in this picture. Any advice appreciated, the auctions end quite soon and the price looks good..! http://store.keysew.com/content/187022/CatagoryProductImages/RefurbishedMachines/SeikoLSW-8BL/SeikoLSW-8BLHead.jpg

Very nice!

I have made some pass-cases, key tag fobs and I have even made a pair of shoes (You can see them if you check out the topics I have made in the past) But every time I attempt a wallet everything goes wrong. I don't know what the problem is but something is always off, the edges don't line up correctly, or when the project is sewn up there's too much loose material and the wallet doesn't stay flat, or sometimes the wallet is too tight to fit in cards or money etc.. My hand sewing is also pretty sloppy but that's another matter. I am debating taking a course on how to do this but before I plonk down a serious amount of cash and time to get training to make wallets does anyone have any book recommendations or have any advice? As far as tutorials I have seen Kevin King's tutorials on wallet making here and while they're good they aren't really the same style of wallets I have attempted. Thanks in advance for any help..!

gluing and cutting out the pieces. i've already since sewn everything together since taking this pic.

There is a machine on auction in Osaka I have been watching for a few months. The sellers price is around 500$ but it hasn't sold in 3 months so if I make an offer it'll be around 300-400$ The seller says the machine sews OK and that it's just dirty. I don't need a super heavy duty machine, I just want something that will let me sew wallets and card cases etc. quickly and more easily than hand punching and saddlestitching. Here's the auction link with pictures. It's in Japanese but the pics speak for themselves. http://page3.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/c303043454

Hey Nick, Here's a picture of the Japanese knife. I started on the final pair earlier this afternoon. Here's how far I've gotten after a few hours worth of tracing, cutting and gluing. Next step will be to sew the stripes of the union jack, then I will sew all the parts of the shoe together.

This thing is beautiful and awesome! Great job. I love it.

If you want to make money doing this quickly, don't waste your time doing labor intensive highly customized projects. They eat up material, time and are basically just inefficient projects. Once you have high enough skills people will come to you with custom orders and pay you custom prices - until then stick to easy profitable stuff. Do small projects that can be quickly mass produced. Key tags, dog collars, commuter pass/cell phone cases, etc. Cut out the leather blanks in batches and do a run of them and sell them in several places at once. Etsy is an OK way to make money once in a while but in my opinion it's basically a waste of time - it's just a place where housewives trade their goods for free and reduce the value of everyone else's work (Sorry to be harsh)

I agree that the shaft is probably too long for the leather you're using! I had the same problem and switched to using shorter-shafted snaps and the problem disappeared.

Thanks for the comments guys. I did take a class to learn how to do this but I would say it's not necessary if you only have a good book or instruction video on how to do it available to you. You will also need to buy several special tools to do it, though you could improvise some of the tools. A machine skiver makes things go pretty quickly at times. However the finer points of changing the pattern do require a lot of experience in pattern design to get right the first time. Any pattern changes don't just appear as 2 dimensional changes as in most leather projects, but 3d changes that can destroy the fit of the shoe if not carefully considered. As this shoe was just a sample I will be starting my first "real" pair this Friday with full soles and will be cutting the leather using a Japanese cutting knife so the cuts should all be perfect next time. Hopefully I can get the stitching a little cleaner too! Thanks again for the comments!