Sewing Wear Leathers To Wool Saddle Pads

[equiss]

Hi All,

I have a question, I have been spending quite a bit of time on some custom wear leathers with some added bling, but had a question about sewing them to the wool woven show pads. Why don't they eventually pull through the wool pad? Why doesn't the stitching eventually pull through the wool pad, or is there precautions I can take to ensure that the wear leather and stitching do not pull through the wool? I could add bias tape to the back of the woven wool pad, but this would look pretty ugly (granted, most people don't care what the back side looks like, but I know this is not how other companies do it)....or do I even need to worry about this?

I just want to make sure these are not going to come off by way of the wool show saddle pad not holding the stitching

thanks all

Charlene Stovin

[dirtclod]

If you talking what i always heard called a "Navajo" a wool blanket/pad that is folded in half. I have done several of them and as far as i know they never came off or tore through. When i did them i just glued the leather on and sewed.

Edited September 20, 2010 by dirtclod

[equiss]

Hi there, not really Navajo pads....more like 100% new zealand wool - like www.mayatex.com are good examples. The warf/weft is fairly tight, but not as tight as navajo pads......some of mine that I have used only a few times have worn so you can see the cording through them, so I just have this feeling that stitch length is critical as well as maybe there needs to be some backing or ?? to help the stitching not to pull through - or maybe I am making a larger issue out of it than it needs to be?

thanks again!

[steveh]

I use 8 -10 oz. skirting for wear leathers.I use contact cement on the blanket and the leather, let tack up good weight it down with a sand bag. I also trench a sewing channel so that the stitches dont wear and it looks much nicer, at 6 stitches per inch.Place a piece of brown craft paper on the back of the area to be sewn.You will need a walking foot machine with a high lift to fit both the blanket and the leather under the presser foot. After sewing is complete , remove the paper from the back, the stitches perferate the paper making it easy to remove and it looks nice. The reason for the paper on the back is so that the feed dog has firm surface to feed your work.

Steve

[equiss]

I use 8 -10 oz. skirting for wear leathers.I use contact cement on the blanket and the leather, let tack up good weight it down with a sand bag. I also trench a sewing channel so that the stitches dont wear and it looks much nicer, at 6 stitches per inch.Place a piece of brown craft paper on the back of the area to be sewn.You will need a walking foot machine with a high lift to fit both the blanket and the leather under the presser foot. After sewing is complete , remove the paper from the back, the stitches perferate the paper making it easy to remove and it looks nice. The reason for the paper on the back is so that the feed dog has firm surface to feed your work.

Steve

Thanks Steve, that is more what I am after...I have a Consew that will work fine, the 6 st. per inch helps. My toro is under construction and should be back soon, but the consew should be sufficient and is a walking foot with a good lift. The paper makes sense.....thanks, much appreciated. I put a lot of work into the leathers, hate to screw it up now!

[steveh]

Just a suggestion, get a cheep old blanket and some scrap leather and practice running it thru your machine to get a feel for how it will run. better to have a learning curve on scrap than on the tooled wear leathers. The blankets I have sewn are like the maytex style.

steve