2nd Bridle

[BlackDragon]

This is my 2nd shot at making an English bridle.

I took quite a bit of time on it going back and forth looking at posts here (Thanks @TomE for the inspiration!) and websites of custom bridles. As always I welcome critiques to help me improve.

I used 9-10oz vegtan for the crown piece, along with 3-4oz burgundy English bridle for the lining and 1/8" Landau Foam for the padding.

The brow band and nose band are 2 pieces of 4-5oz vegtan with a 10oz core, the lining/padding for the nose band is the same as for the crown.

I used NFO, then Fiebing's black pro dye, then Fiebing's leather balm with atom wax. The crown, brow band, and nose band are machine sewn. The buckles and keepers are hand sewn. The keepers closest to the hardware are sewn in place. 

I also made a few loop sticks out of some hardwood I had laying around for the keepers. I think I'll need make several 5/8" if I going to make a lot of bridles.

          

 

For the nose band I made a wedge on either side for better spacing.

  

[DieselTech]

Looks nice. Great work!

[BlackDragon]

6 hours ago, DieselTech said:

Looks nice. Great work!

Thanks!

[TomE]

Very nice work! Lots of handsome details.  A couple of questions/suggestions.  The noseband buckle can rub on the jaw bone, depending on the hole in use so it's useful to pad underneath the buckle.  Can either extend the noseband ~2" and sew the buckle on top, or you can include a flap of 6oz leather in the buckle turn, underneath the buckle.  I would make the platform for the hook studs a little longer, increasing the spacing between the 2 fixed loops, in order to make it easier to open the billets when attaching a bit.  The stitching around the raised element on the noseband is perhaps a bit far away from the edge of the strap.  The loose edge of the padding might curl with wear.  If needed, can modify the design using a wider filler strip for the raised element and sewing closer to the edge of the strap. 

Great to have another English bridle maker on this site.  Let's continue to share notes.  I am doing more repairs than new goods these days.  It seems both activities are complementary.  I learn new construction methods from the items I repair, and feel that making tack gives me a knowledge base to do better repairs and modifications.   

[BlackDragon]

1 hour ago, TomE said:

Very nice work! Lots of handsome details.  A couple of questions/suggestions.  The noseband buckle can rub on the jaw bone, depending on the hole in use so it's useful to pad underneath the buckle.  Can either extend the noseband ~2" and sew the buckle on top, or you can include a flap of 6oz leather in the buckle turn, underneath the buckle.  I would make the platform for the hook studs a little longer, increasing the spacing between the 2 fixed loops, in order to make it easier to open the billets when attaching a bit.  The stitching around the raised element on the noseband is perhaps a bit far away from the edge of the strap.  The loose edge of the padding might curl with wear.  If needed, can modify the design using a wider filler strip for the raised element and sewing closer to the edge of the strap. 

Great to have another English bridle maker on this site.  Let's continue to share notes.  I am doing more repairs than new goods these days.  It seems both activities are complementary.  I learn new construction methods from the items I repair, and feel that making tack gives me a knowledge base to do better repairs and modifications.   

Thanks this helps a lot!

The reason I had for stitching away from the edge is the foot wouldn't have anything to walk on with out it falling off the edge. This happened a couple times on the practice piece. I suppose I could use either the stirrup plate or holster plate and sew it upside down.

[TomE]

2 hours ago, BlackDragon said:

Thanks this helps a lot!

The reason I had for stitching away from the edge is the foot wouldn't have anything to walk on with out it falling off the edge. This happened a couple times on the practice piece. I suppose I could use either the stirrup plate or holster plate and sew it upside down.

Yes, it's a challenge to machine sew alongside a raised element on a narrow border.  One solution is to trim to width after sewing, but this is problematic for a padded strap.  I have an in-line pressor foot for my Class 4 that I bought from @CowboyBob at Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines.  It works well but takes some practice, e.g. you have to back out of sharp turns in order to give the rear foot a place to land.  https://www.facebook.com/share/v/15gmyLrtX1/  A narrow pressor foot set from @Patrick1 also does nicely.  https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BWLAmkrxV/  The standard left foot on a Class 26 wraps around the center foot and functions like an in-line pressor foot.  I just let the left foot hang off the edge of the strap and the wrap-around part fits nicely against the raised element.  Of course, the low tech solution is to sew by hand.   

[BlackDragon]

2 hours ago, TomE said:

Yes, it's a challenge to machine sew alongside a raised element on a narrow border.  One solution is to trim to width after sewing, but this is problematic for a padded strap.  I have an in-line pressor foot for my Class 4 that I bought from @CowboyBob at Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines.  It works well but takes some practice, e.g. you have to back out of sharp turns in order to give the rear foot a place to land.  https://www.facebook.com/share/v/15gmyLrtX1/  A narrow pressor foot set from @Patrick1 also does nicely.  https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BWLAmkrxV/  The standard left foot on a Class 26 wraps around the center foot and functions like an in-line pressor foot.  I just let the left foot hang off the edge of the strap and the wrap-around part fits nicely against the raised element.  Of course, the low tech solution is to sew by hand.   

You know, I didn't even think about Patrick1's narrow presser foot set. I have the set and just took it out and sure enough I could've used that with a 23 needle, which I was using.

I do very little hand sewing any more. My hands decided to rebel after working assembly lines for to many years lol.