twotrees

Hey folks, Here's the link to the pattern for my stuffed leather cow. It's a fun one to make, and great for using up scraps. Stick to one colour, or make a patchwork cow!

Hey, this is a stuffed leather cow I made, from a pattern that I also made!

A word of warning about Simard, I've heard their mechanic/repair man is not much good. I've never used their repair service but everyone I've heard talk about them says their machines are good, the repair guy not so much. Feel free to get in touch when you get here!

I'm in KW! When are you arriving? You're well set in this area, there's a Tandy in Missisauga - approx 45 mins drive from here, and several other independent leather suppliers in Toronto too. There are a couple of tack stores very close too, Aaron Martin in Elmira, Brubackers in Wallenstein and Sprucewood in Tavistock. For machines, there's a company called Simard in Cambridge which deals in industrial sewing machinery, they often have good used machines passing through. Techsew is in Montreal if you're interested in clones, and there's also Reliable in Toronto. There's also a dealer of other clone brands in Toronto, called Japan Sewing. Very locally KW Sewing Machines is close to downtown Kitchener and is a Reliable dealer. They also stock Groz-Beckert needles, #69 thread and will order in other items for you too. I've never needed it, but they also offer repairs.

This is a tricky subject and is complicated by the fact that we have now have a global economy which means laws in the country of origin of the pattern/product may be different to laws in your own country. In general, these are the rules I follow - I err on the side of caution in the hope of avoiding any potential hot water. If you purchase a pattern you're free to make as many products using that pattern as you like, as long as you don't make any profit from those products. If you want to use that pattern to make profit, it's good manners to check with the person who made that pattern first. Sometimes it's pretty obvious that this is the intention (for example if the seller only sells patterns) but often a seller will also make and sell their own products and might not appreciate you doing the same thing. It's always a good idea to check. You should never, ever distribute a pattern that you've paid for without the express permission of the pattern maker. The person who made that pattern worked hard on that, from initial conception to prototyping and testing - not to mention any instructional material (videos, image galleries etc) that come along with the pattern. Buying an item with the express intent of disassembling it and make reproductions for sale, then this is the same as design theft and I would not recommend it. Using patterns from a book for profit falls under the same category as point number 1 - check with the author first. About motifs or design features, such as a particular shape or combination or colours. This is a particularly tricky area that you'll want to be careful of. Often potential customers will enquire about having something like a patch with a sports team logo added to a product, or maybe a distinctive image form a movie etc. This is a big no-no. Motifs, logos, emblems whatever you want to call them are normally protected under copyright law and there have been numerous cases of companies pursuing litigation against people producing items embellished with their trademarks. Changing a pattern or design to make it your own is another tricky area. There are percentages bandied around, distinguishing features talked about and even fundamentals like sizing and proportions. The fact is, that if you use a single product as your design inspiration, you're very likely to not make enough changes such that it is distinguishable enough form the original to make you safe from accusation of design theft. I would recommend using several different products as inspiration points and trying to come up with something that uses feature you like from each one. Then, compare your final product to each of your inspiration points individually - if you can't tell that the overall new product was inspired in part from the original, then you've probably done enough to protect yourself. I hope this helps!

Hello all, I have a line on one of these machines for a very fair cash price and I'm struggling to talk myself out of it. Has anyone here used one of these? Please share your thoughts. Thanks in advance

Firstly, recheck your thread path, this is often the cause of the majority of sewing problems. Thread breakage often occurs when the needle is too small for the thread - try using a large needle or a smaller thread. Bird's nests on the underside are often a sign of a lack of top tension, try increasing the top tension half a turn at a time. Try to keep your bobbin filled to a maximum of about 3/4 full, and check your bobbin winding tension too. Also worth worth checking bobbin tension - if you've made a drastic change to the thread size on your bobbin you may need to adjust the spring tension down there too.

Solved!!! I've spent a day or so figuring this out but eventually discovered my needle bar was set too low. Raising it by 2.1mm allowed the hook point/blade to pass through the loop of thread rather than catching on the thread and the issues is completely resolved. Thanks all for the suggestions, I tried them all out to no avail prior to discovering the needle bar problem. It's true what they say - experience is what you get just after you needed it.

Afternoon all, I've just spent the better of a day with my machine in pieces and wanted to share with you what I've learned along the way. In the beginning, I bought a used Juki-341N which had previously been used by another leather worker for about a year or so (IIRC) and previous to that in a factory sewing furnace filters. According to what I could find out, this is a made in Japan machine at about 15-20 years of age. The machine ran great, had been well maintained and was clean. The only problem I'd been experiencing was that every now and again the top thread had a habit of shredding. I couldn't for the life of me work out the cause; I checked, double checked and triple checked my thread path, I tried a larger needle, I switched out thread between brands, I looked all over the thread path for burrs or scratches to no avail. Eventually I decided that since I make the vast majority of my items inside out, I could live with having a non-continuous seam, I would just restart the seam if the thread broke and carry on - the overall strength of the seam would be unaffected and nobody sees it anyway. Until yesterday afternoon, when my machine came to a clunking halt. I had a jam-up, I couldn't hand wheel the machine through more than about 180 degrees of rotation, something was binding it up and my work screeched to a stop with about 8 inches of sewing left to do (ARGH!). I took out the bobbin and bobbin case and quickly found the cause, thread had become entangled around the hook, the needle guard and all sorts of other parts down in the workings of the machine. I picked out what I could but it became apparent that I wasn't going to be able to clear the tangle without going deeper. After removing the feed dog, the needle guard, the bobbin carrier (sp? Not sure the proper name of this part), and the hook assembly I finally managed to clear the tangle but now I was left with a bunch of parts that I knew had to go back into EXACTLY the right spots. AND I still had to find the cause for the tangle that caused the jam. AND I had to figure out why I was still getting thread breakages. Enter the engineer's manual. This gem of a publication, discovered after about 10 seconds of googling goes into so much more detail about tuning and adjusting than the user manual that it's unclear to me why a user manual even exists. Within about an hour I'd reassembled my machine, checked my measurements and tolerances and got it back to stitching how it was before. Great! But stitching how it was before still resulted in thread breakages...back to the engineer's manual I went and this is where I discovered the true value of this reference. There are, in fact, several versions of the Juki 341N and the engineer's manual specifies measurements and tolerances for all of them. In the handy trouble shooting section it stated that thread breakage is often a symptom of trouble with needle-to-hook timing. Turn to the relevant page in the manual and voila - measurements for the needle bar height for each version of the 341N. It turns out that at some point in this machine's history it had either been equipped with an automatic thread cutter (making it a 341N-7) or someone had hastily checked the measurements in the manual and adjusted the needle bar height incorrectly. Either way, the needle bar was set 2.1mm too low. This lead to the hook point/blade catching and severing the needle thread, rather than passing through the loop. Loosening the needle bar set screw, tapping the needle bar to the correct height and retightening solved the problem completely. I've just finished up about 3 metres of test stitching and not a single skipped stitch or thread break. I'm as happy as could be right now, and it's all down to the engineer's manual. If you're having trouble with your machine, find it, read it and check your machine against it. You might find that the problem is something you hadn't even though of.

Well, I went ahead and ordered one. Found one for around $100 on AliExpress which will be fine as a 'proof of a concept'. I'll report back when it gets here!

I've been looking for a used one for the better part of a year. I think in total I found 3 and all so far away from me that by the time I figured in shipping costs (approx 3-500 CAD) and the risk of buying it without seeing it in person, it would be just as worthwhile to buy a new one. Have you used one of these? I mostly work with softer tempered chrome or oil tanned leather for bag and back pack making and I'm concerned that this wouldn't be up to task.

I have a full size for Juki-341, but the left side of it is occupied by my lining machine. You make use of the space you have!

Hey all, So I make mostly bags with a lot of turned seams and rolled edges. Up to now I've been hand skiving which works fine - I've become better at sharpening than I ever thought I would be! - but in the meantime I've been saving up for a bell skiver. I'm almost ready to pull the trigger but $3000 is a lot of money and I'd feel silly if I hadn't researched other less expensive options first. I keep seeing pictures of this strange looking device pop up when browsing for used skivers, it's usually crazy cheap and I just wondered if anyone here has ever used one and what you thought of it? I normally skive around 3/4" to 1" of about 3 to 4 or 4 to 5 oz chrome or oil tanned leather at least by half or to a feather edge if rolling. Is this something that's achievable on a device like this? Thanks in advance! "Edge of bench skiver"

Yep, DP is a triangular shaped tip.

Hello all, I have a Juki 341 that runs like a charm, I'm honestly amazed at how I got anything done in the 'before machine times'. I'm having one issue though that is proving frustrating so I figured I'd turn it over to the hive-mind of this forum. I'm running #69 bonded nylon (needle and bobbin) with a size 18 DP Groz-Beckert needle in max. 7-8 oz of leather (at seam overlaps etc.). Stitching is a breeze on regular runs but every now and again when I backstitch to begin or end a run of stitching the top thread shreds at the needle. This doesn't occur every time I backstitch but seems to be slightly more common when I'm backstitching over thicker areas. I've played around with the tension to point but because it stitches like a dream during regular use I'm reluctant to do too much with it. So, does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance!

I use picture frame matting board. It's about $10 for a sheet of 36x48 and holds up really well. I scratch around the pieces with an awl and then remove the board for cutting.

I'd love a pattern for a large duffle style bag, with tie down ends, similar to to this. I've tried and failed to make this work, and I can get close but never perfect. Thanks!

Mods please delete or move if this isn't allowed... So every now and again I browse Kijiji (the canadian version of Craigslist) and saw a listing show up for a Pfaff 335 in Bowmanville, ON. Listed for $1,200 it seems like a pretty good deal, so I figured I'd post it here to let anyone in the Bowmanville area know. Go look it up if you like!

RESOLVED Got in touch with the previous owner to check exactly what the needle that was in the machine when I bought it was. Turns out the needle that came with the machine was different to the needles that I bought, a triangular profile rather than the diamond profile that I thought it was. Oops. I have a lot to learn.

In the process of getting used to a new-to-me Juki 341N, picked up a pack of Schmetz needles because the guy who supplied the servo motor also sold those. I've tried three different needles out of the pack and every single one breaks my top thread after about 6 inches of stitching. A Groz Beckert needle of the same size, with the same thread stitches no problem at all. Has anyone else found Schmetz needles to be a bit iffy? They're all I use in my small fabric machines and have no problems like this, so I'm curious.

Kgg, Thanks for the reply! I'm almost not sure on the limited lifetime warranty thing, seems to be a little murky. I think I'll contact Reliable and go sew a few seams on their machines to see how they feel. And double thanks for the tip on Japan Sewing. I had come across their website during a search for sewing machine stores in southwest Ontario (I'm in Kitchener) but had been put off because of the terrible website. I'll get in touch and try to pay them a visit on the same day as Reliable. Thanks again!

Hey folks, So a while ago I posted asking about a few different machines up for sale near me. I didn't end up going with any of them as one commenter pointed out that a) a new machine is always a better investment if you're planning on turning a profit with your works and b) if you only plan to buy one sewing machine for a while then a cylinder arm is the better choice. I appreciate the advice and I've taken it on board so I'm now looking for a cylinder arm. I think I'm just about set on a Techsew (online), but I wondered into my local sewing machine store yesterday on the off chance they had something else available. Nothing in the store was suitable but the CSR told me that their supplier does make a cylinder arm machine, the 4300CW. It sounds (from the spec sheet) to be very similar to the Techsew but I haven't been able to find much in the way of reviews. Has anyone had/used a Reliable machine before? I'd appreciate your input. Thanks in advance.

Hi everybody, Hoping to get some advice here. I've finally decided that it's time for me to invest in a machine, hand stitching is awesome and I love the look of it but I've moved into more bag making and larger projects and I need to really cut down my time spent making items if I'm hoping to be profitable. I was all set to order one of those hand crank machines but then I noticed a comment about bobbin size and I eventually made the link that a machine for repairs is not likely to be suitable for whole project production - that could have been a costly mistake! So now I'm looking at electric, true walking foot machines. I've found 3 potentials on Kijiji (Canada's version of CraigsList), that I'd like to run past the members here and hear your thoughts. Before I list them, I make bags out of mostly 3-4 oz leather, most often joining 2 pieces but occasionally 3 pieces, meaning a total maximum thickness of around 10-12 oz. Thread size hasn't really figured into this yet, I hand stitch with thread that's approximately .8mm, I prefer thread on the thicker side, but this isn't a deal breaker for me. So, my choices are below, could you give me some advice on whether these machines will do the job I'd like them to do, and whether they're priced fairly? I know they'e all a little banged up, but one of my other hobbies is tool and machinery restoration so I'm not too fussed about that. Thanks in advance. Consew 225 Link $400 Pfaff 145 Link $700 Singer 211W Link $800 - this one has a servo motor equipped - I gather that's a bonus right? Thanks again, Duncan

Hey, I made this bag a few weeks ago and I'm still super proud of it. It's a Tony See pattern with some modifications. 4/5oz oil finished, chrome tanned pull-up leather from Tandy, Kodiak I think it was. About 30hrs of work in this, all hand stitched.

It would I guess, I made a similar pair for the same bag I'm working on right now but with a flesh to flesh seam and whilst the twist wasn't too bad it did have some, and once fixed it was held in place. I was just wondering if maybe the twist could be avoided in the first place. I'll be sure to post some pictures once the bag is finished!