Purposes of leather pieces on skirt with fleece

[Mdolfan]

So now I know I’ll be too old to ride by the time I’m done hand stitching the skirts.  On the other hand, I like saddle stitch.  Fleece?  Not so much!  Any tips for keeping the fleece out of your way when you stitch?  I conditioned the thread with paper as I read on here to do. 

[TomE]

11 minutes ago, Mdolfan said:

So now I know I’ll be too old to ride by the time I’m done hand stitching the skirts.  On the other hand, I like saddle stitch.  Fleece?  Not so much!  Any tips for keeping the fleece out of your way when you stitch?  I conditioned the thread with paper as I read on here to do. 

I feel your pain.  Just finished hand sewing a shearling liner on a surcingle, and didn't figure enough labor for the sewing.  I normally just pass the waxed thread through my fingers to burnish the wax, but that was a total fail for shearling.  Clumps of wool pulled through the stitch holes.  Burnishing with brown paper did the trick, even for cobbler's sticky wax (beeswax + pine resin).  After that, I didn't have a problem with the wool getting in the way.  I inserted/twisted an awl to enlarge each hole,  put a needle through the front side and twirled it a little, and inserted the needle from the backside as I withdrew the needle from the front (feeling my way into the backside), then ran the needle through from the front side and pulled up the stitch.  Went pretty smoothly once I got the feel of finding the holes from the backside.  I was able to use a stitching horse for my project and that no doubt helps my consistency.

[Mdolfan]

I’ll have to try burnishing the thread a bit more.  I got a bit of shearling coming through the first few stitches.  Maybe it was just the first couple stitches that are an issue because I’ve not had so much of a problem with the other stitches.  I actually tried using a big dollar store bag clip, the kind you use on snack bags, to hold one side (excess off the leather side) of the shearling down.  I think, too, using a metal dog comb and pushing it into the other side of the fleece will help keep a clearer path for the needles.  But I have to try that as I didn’t have the dog comb when I was at Tandy Leather learning how to saddle stitch.  There might be other hair products designed for keeping hair in a bun that might work too.  I’m going to go look tomorrow and see if I find anything.  And man, I wish I had a stitching horse!  Just don’t feel like building one for one saddle.  Wonder if I could try 2x4 pieces and C-clamps and just lay the 2x4 pieces on my legs.  It would give some support to the piece.  
 

I admire you guys who do this for a living!