Skill Building for New Sewing Machine Owners?

[AEBL]

I now have a Consew 206RB-3 (driven with a servo). I'm afraid to do much to the leather I bought for a project because I pretty much know how to thread the machine and oil it.

I got a couple of pair of blue jeans that I have cut up and run stitches on, topstitched open seams, and it is still sort of rough looking (machine sews great - guy running the machine is the problem).

What would you guys recommend for me to try and get better?

[Digit]

Practice makes perfect.

Use scrap pieces of leather or very thick textile (folded over to match leather thickness) to test your stitches and thread tension. Experiment with thread sizes and stitch lengths, just make sure your needle size is adjusted to the thread size and your stitch length is adjusted to the material thickness (larger stitches for thicker material).
Use different color upper and lower thread while testing thread tension: correct tension means you don't see bits of the lower thread color on top and no bits of upper thread color on the bottom stitch.

You mentioned your machine has a servo motor. Does it come with a needle positioning system? If so, practice stitch-by-stitch sewing to get a feel of the pedal control. Also practice stitching at the slowest possible speed.

Try to visually align the edge of your piece with the needle plate or presser foot and practice making straight stitches that are perfectly parallel with the edge of the piece or other stitches.

When sewing two or more bits together, keeping things in place is the hardest part. With textile you can use pins, but those leave a mark on leather. With leather you can use contact adhesive or double-side tape to set your pieces together before stitching them (just make sure your glue is dry before stitching and don't stitch through tape; both can mess up your needle).

Edited Friday at 10:15 AM by Digit

[Mulesaw]

I like to practice on off-cuts. They can have all sort of shapes, and putting two together and try to make a nice seam along the edge of one of the shapes is a great little exercise, and it only cost the thread.

Brgds Jonas

[chuck123wapati]

Thrift stores are your friend! Check out old leather goods, leather clothing, and boots, and such. Also, scraps and cut-offs make good tooling and sewing practices. This sheath was a scrap that i practiced tooling on then I reversed it and made a roughout sheath for an old beater and practiced my sewing on it also. I have a cheapo china patcher so a lot of scrap was burned in the process of setting up and practicing lol.

[AEBL]

Great, thanks folks! My first project is a tote bag ... and I do need to make sure that I can get my seams absolutely parallel for the straps. I'm probably going to put some miles on the machine getting better at parallel lines, and backstitching that doesn't look awful. I don't have a needle positioning system, but I think it might be possible to get one for my servo controller ... I have a Consew C3000 controller.

I like the economy of reusing tooling practice leather as a roughout sheath ... very cool.

Edited Friday at 02:33 PM by AEBL

[Digit]

If you don't have a needle positioning system, then experiment with turning the handwheel to find the 'correct' position before changing stitching direction or you might undo the last forward stitch on the first reverse stitch. The needle should be down and the interlock made. If the needle is down but the lock isn't made, you're going to pull the top thread right back out and you'll have a hole without any thread in.

[fibersport]

Being new to sewing myself, I like to watch various youtube videos to pick up tips and then try them on some scrap vinyl.  My first project was seat covers for my Jeep CJ in leather.  Before actually using leather, I made up one complete out of vinyl for practice. I'm very formtunate in that I have literally rolls of vinyl to use.  It really helped to determine the order of assembly.  Other than that, practice sewing, once you feel comfortable with straight lines, throw in some curves, then some tight 90's.  I picked up a lot of tips from a guy who has a business called "pit-n-tacks", he's really good in showing you the basics.

[AlZilla]

Al Bane has a video where he suggested learning by buying a hide and making belts for all your friends.

My friend are still waiting ... But it seemed a good idea.