Sewing A Fur And Leather Bag By Hand

[blackrosedie]

Hi again,

I hope everyone is keeping well. I have brought some cow hides with the hair still on them and I am struggling to find any information in books or on the internet about hand sewing the fur. I want to make a rustic satchel bag with hand sewn seams. What is the correct way to prepare the seams for sewing. Do I need to shave the hair off to make a seam allowance? If so what is the best tool/technique to use to do this?

I assume I don't just punch the holes over the hair, as once sewn the hair will poke through the laced seams?

I really want to work this out so I can use up all these possum and cow hides I have sitting in my studio.

Thanks so much for your time.

[johnggrg]

Blackrosedie. I am no expert at all. But I did make a shoulder strap that I used sheep fur for a pad. I had to shave the fur where the seem was going to be. The regular leather on mine overlaped the fur so covering the shaved area was no big deal. You could use a razor or skiver to cut the fur away. Just be carefull not to shave to much.

Now if there is no regular leather covering the seem and all the seem is going to be is the fur being sewed together. I am not sure. I would think you would still have to shave it. But I am not sure on that. hope this helps.

Unless you were lacing it together. Then I could see not needing to shave at all. But then again. How would you see the stitch line. John

[THein]

Hi again,

I hope everyone is keeping well. I have brought some cow hides with the hair still on them and I am struggling to find any information in books or on the internet about hand sewing the fur. I want to make a rustic satchel bag with hand sewn seams. What is the correct way to prepare the seams for sewing. Do I need to shave the hair off to make a seam allowance? If so what is the best tool/technique to use to do this?

I assume I don't just punch the holes over the hair, as once sewn the hair will poke through the laced seams?

I really want to work this out so I can use up all these possum and cow hides I have sitting in my studio.

Thanks so much for your time.

Good morning,

You should shave off the hair in the seam allowance. The best way I've found to do this is to use some pet grooming clippers. I've found some pretty inexpensive ones.

Terry

[Somawas]

I've made 4 bags of hair on cow. Three are all hair on. Two, I just stitched saddle stitching, inside out. No shaving, etc. The third I laced. Drew my line on the back, cut the holes with a 4 in 1 punch and laced with a double loop. The fourth was inlay, Again, no shaving, just stitched away.

[blackrosedie]

Thanks everyone! This is really helpful information. This particular hide is so shaggy I think I will have to shave the seams at least a bit as the hair is so long. I want to lace it together with a double loop but I think the hair would be all caught up in the lacing if I didn't trim it a little bit. Inlays sound really interesting I want to find some more information about them too. I love the natural stones inlayed on the front flap of a bag. Why is none of this in all the leather craft books I have! Boo.

Thanks again!

[Luggage]

Hi!

I do quite a bit of work in reproducing historic bags made from hair-on animal hides, and I rarely see edges left exposed on originals. Saddle-stitched inside out, as Somawas has suggested, seems to be the most common.

One method that has not been mentioned yet is edge-binding with leather. Thin sheepskin or kid can be sewn over the seam edge with the same stitching that draws the body together. I use a normal saddle-stitch but I presume more decorative techniques can be used as well. The hair will still catch in the stitching if it is very long, but in most cases you shouldn't need to trim.

The binding leather can easily be dyed beforehand to match the hide, or to contrast, or can be left natural.

The other (very) sneaky advantage of an outwards-edge-bound seam is that you can affix a lining fabric to the inside of the hide parts and then pinch the lining into the seam at the same time sewing both at one go.

Undyed sheep binding around the outside edge of a knapsack flap:

I hope I've explained it right. I think like most on here I'm better at the doing than the talking part!

Good luck with your projects!

(P.S. Sometimes older books have techniques the new ones leave out. Somewhere I have a How-to from the 1940s which was mostly Celtic-influenced work and cut work, inlay work, and as you mentioned setting glass and semi-precious stones into leather -- 'Ruskin Stones' as it called them. never done it myself, but I'll see if I can rustle up the book...)