Relining Skirts

[Tkleather1]

Hey guys I am just curious about how much it would cost to reline some skirts. A friend of mines dog chewed off all the sheepskin from one of his saddles and want me to reline them. I just dont know what the going rate is for this. if you could help me out and shoot me some ball park rough estimates taht would be great.

Thanks in advance

Tim Worley

TK-Leather

[Luke Hatley]

if it is a good saddle in great shape use sheepskin.....$225.00

[jwwright]

I charge $275, which includes new strings and tugs. ..............might charge more, depending upon the situation. JW

[bruce johnson]

Tim,

I don't have a set price. It ranges from $300 on up depending on a few things. If they have lugs and a simple lace pattern then it tends to be the $300 or so range. If the lace pattern is more complex - more time = more money, usually another $25 - $50. If they have pocketed bars, then they have to be sewn back. That adds another $75 or so. Usually that stitching is pretty old anyway, so I resew all the stitch lines by hand. I can pretty well give an estimate based on eyeballing these things.

The wild cards I hold out and let them know about are the plugs. If the skirts are curled or the plugs are shrunk back from the edge, they will need to be replaced to sew back. The skirts might need to be wet, flattened, dried and reconditioned before you plug them back. Add in the cost of the plugs and that can tack on another $100 plus easy enough. Most of the time I replace strings on saddles with them when I reline too.

A few tips I have been given and pass along. Before you try to pull the woolskin, take a stitching groover and run it over the top stitching a couple times. That will weaken it enough that when you pull the woolskin, the stitches will pull through with the woolskin and there should be very few left to pick. The loop blade type groovers or a freehand stitch groover ("gum tool")work well for this. Picking stitches is a pain. Another tip is to resew with a round needle, old guys (generally wise) tell me it will follow the old needle hole better than a chisel point needle.

[Traveller]

I enquired a couple of years ago about replacing sheepskin and was quoted $300. And I'm sure that if they'd tripped across any of the issues Bruce is describing, they would have charged extra for the increased work load (totally fair).