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Gah, thank you all for so many helpful responses! Here's what I ended up doing and it more or less worked but my machine does NOT seem to like the combo of leather with the #138 bonded nylon thread I'm using. I think it's in the upper range of what my machine is capable of and I'm considering getting a Cobra Class 4 after this experience. Anyway, I digress: 1) First, I tried what Constabulary suggested and got a stronger tension spring from Atlas Levy. That definitely helped. 2) Then I switched out the size 22 needle for size 23 and I think that did it. I still had to very carefully create my locked stitches from the start point and the end points but I didn't have any trouble with it fraying or bunching as long as I kept track of the tension. Around corners it still seems to be a little loose on one or two of the threads but it's still LEAPS better than the last post. Any advice on how to clean these up a bit more would be great but man it's so much better already. (Under side of stitch is pictured. Top is perfect.)

Hi Folks! I've been trying for about 2 straight days now to balance out the tension between the top and bottom threads of my Pfaff 335 machine (pictured below). I've tried EVERYTHING to get these stitches to come out evenly but keep getting the results shown in the sample stitching below. The closest I can get to even is to tighten the top tension nearly the entire way and loosen the bobbin thread tension to nearly nothing. That seems off to me. I've tried winding the bobbin at different tensions, checked my needle (135x17 SD1 #22) and still... I get this. I just don't get it. When I do get very close, the top spool thread also tends to fray. What am I doing wrong? Please help!

Hi! So I've been working on a relatively newer Pfaff 335 machine and it's been getting the job done. After sewing an entire colonial style jacket out of leather and suede on a commercial machine, I finally upgraded; however, I'm beginning to think I'm making life harder than it needs to be by not using the correct settings for each job. I generally use a 17/105 or 18/110 diamond point needle for most things and the forum recently helped enlighten me about materials / needle / thread combos with the charts I found. I use a flat plate and the feed dogs in the pic below. I work on wallets, duffle bags, jackets, dopp kits and a lot of random luxury items. I even make soft leather holsters. After scouring the site and the manuals, I'm having a hard time finding good resources for what tools do what with my machine i.e. If I'm making a nice, burberry or cole haan type wallet with (fill in the blank type leather) (fill in the blank weight), I'd love to find some sort of 'standard practices' guide that answers: what needle and thread would I use? if binding edges, how to operate the edge binder and how to choose the size feeder etc etc what type of leathers are --typically-- used and what range of leather thickness? if skivving, how thin? when stitching zippers, which feet to use for the machine? I realize this just gets honed with time and each project is unique depending on the tastes but there has to be a guideline? I've figured out a lot thus far but it takes forever. Any help, resources, tables and/or charts are immensely appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Have you tried skivving the leather around the edges that you're sewing first? I use a machine but if you do it manually, just make sure your blade is extremely sharp. That's really the only way to get it to keep from having that buckled, puckered look. Even with softer leather, I skiv down the edges before i sew and it gives much better lines. If you don't have a machine, make sure you practice a bunch first. It's not always a quick-pick-up skill.

Would you guys recommend this vs. using a pneumatic one? I've seen people use arbor presses (maybe with wetting the leather surface first) to stamp their monograms but it depends more on the leather whether it stays or not. I'm just worried the Kingsley machine wouldn't have enough torque from a manual crank to press down the metal plate into the leather.

Instead of buying a hot press machine, which is basically an arbor press with an adjustable heating pad, is there a way to modify an arbor press to do the same thing that a Kingsley Hot Press would do in debossing emblems? I love the mods that you guys did to your arbors but I need one that's heated.