Hand Stitching Skirts

[Appalachiancowboy38]

Morning Everyone, 

I’m new here, been reading for a while but this is my first post. I’ve been doing leatherwork for about 4 years now, mostly tack. My goal has always been to make saddles. I am about to start on my first one but my current sewing machine only handles up to a 207 thread so I’m looking for resources on hand stitching the skirt. Any help is greatly appreciated! 
 

Thanks in advance!

[Mulesaw]

10 minutes ago, Appalachiancowboy38 said:

Morning Everyone, 

I’m new here, been reading for a while but this is my first post. I’ve been doing leatherwork for about 4 years now, mostly tack. My goal has always been to make saddles. I am about to start on my first one but my current sewing machine only handles up to a 207 thread so I’m looking for resources on hand stitching the skirt. Any help is greatly appreciated! 
 

Thanks in advance!

Morning, and welcome to the forum :-)

I am pretty sure that it is described in "encyclopedia of saddle making" by Al Stohlman. I am not near my own copy at the moment, so I can't check it out for you.
But as far as I remember, the saddles that makes in the encyclopedia are all made using hand stitching.

Generally what I have found while repairing saddle skirts (on English type saddles), the most important thing regarding the look of the saddle is to be consistent with the tension and the position of the awl and the thread in the holes. So I would guess the same applies to a western type saddle.

There is an entire sub forum assigned for saddles and tack, you could try to look there as well to see if there are some tips and tricks regarding skirts. https://leatherworker.net/forum/forum/62-saddle-construction/

Good luck.

Brgds Jonas

[rktaylor]

I hand stitched my first five saddles before I bought a sewing machine. There's no real trick to it. It just takes a lot of time. I learned to wrap my pinky fingers in athletic tape because you are pulling a lot of stitches. Make sure your stitching pony has deep enough jaws to handle the skirts. Good luck.

Randy

[Northmount]

4 hours ago, Appalachiancowboy38 said:

I’m looking for resources on hand stitching the skirt

Moved your post to Saddle Construction

 

[Appalachiancowboy38]

8 hours ago, Mulesaw said:

Morning, and welcome to the forum :-)

I am pretty sure that it is described in "encyclopedia of saddle making" by Al Stohlman. I am not near my own copy at the moment, so I can't check it out for you.
But as far as I remember, the saddles that makes in the encyclopedia are all made using hand stitching.

Generally what I have found while repairing saddle skirts (on English type saddles), the most important thing regarding the look of the saddle is to be consistent with the tension and the position of the awl and the thread in the holes. So I would guess the same applies to a western type saddle.

There is an entire sub forum assigned for saddles and tack, you could try to look there as well to see if there are some tips and tricks regarding skirts. https://leatherworker.net/forum/forum/62-saddle-construction/

Good luck.

Brgds Jonas

I’ve got a copy on its way now. From what I’ve learned that’s the Bible of saddlery lol thanks for the advice!

[Appalachiancowboy38]

5 hours ago, rktaylor said:

I hand stitched my first five saddles before I bought a sewing machine. There's no real trick to it. It just takes a lot of time. I learned to wrap my pinky fingers in athletic tape because you are pulling a lot of stitches. Make sure your stitching pony has deep enough jaws to handle the skirts. Good luck.

Randy

For my first year of leatherwork all I did was hand stitching. I came very familiar with what thread does to skin over time lol. Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it!