What to put inside a horse show halter throatlatch to make it keep a shape?

[ShellCordovanFan]

On 1/25/2023 at 8:22 PM, TomE said:

Thanks, Ron.  I recall (?) you giving me tips for sewing close to hardware. 

What are these “sewing close to hardware” tips? I could certainly use some help in that department!! (The search function was not my friend for locating these.)

Edited March 13, 2023 by ShellCordovanFan

[TomE]

5 hours ago, ShellCordovanFan said:

What are these “sewing close to hardware” tips? I could certainly use some help in that department!! (The search function was not my friend for locating these.)

The failsafe is to stitch mark up to the hardware and begin machine sewing 4 holes away, leaving long tails of thread so you can hand sew back to the hardware.  As mentioned in my triple stitched halter methods, I have used this method to sew tightly against the 3 rings on a halter.  More recently, I've been inserting a wedge shaped welt next to the rings so that I can machine stitch right up to the ring.  Two tips -- Be sure to include the welt when wet forming the leather around the ring to minimize the bulge that the machine has to climb.  Also, I am having very good results using the narrow pressor foot setup from @Patrick1 at Hennigan Engineering and Precision.  These feet climb the change in material thickness without a lot of hands-on manipulation.  The Cobra double pressor foot is a bit more slippery in my experience with sewing bridle leather.  I am using the narrow throat plate and feed dog from @RockyAussie for these heavy projects (2-3 layers of 9-10 oz bridle leather).  I use the extreme narrow plate/feed dog from Hennigan Precision when sewing lighter projects with 138 thread and a #21 needle.  For a halter with a round leather throatlatch, I still sew the gullet end against the throatlatch by hand in order to sew tight against the loop that wraps around the throatlatch.