Machine Sewing Leather

[raysouth]

Hello All.

I have been searching for information about machine sewing of leather for some time and yet to find any printed instructional material so, wondering if anyone has an idea where I might find something that will teach this old timer about sewing leather?

I purchased a heavy duty machine, but not excited about using it without learning something so as not to break the machine. Cowboy/Cobra 4 size machine and nice piece of equipment but hesitant to use as I am in the dark about sewing anything. Extent of my knowledge is threading a hand stitch needle so you can easily understand why I need a ton of assistance. Pains me every day I go by the machine and not confident enough to use.

Hope someone can head me off in the right direction.

God Bless.

Ray, aka; helmut

[dirtclod]

Get some scrap make you some lines on it and start sewing. Then cut some different shapes and sew them. Start slow and learn to sew free hand and with the guide. Theirs not that much to it. Ever body had to crawl before they learned to walk. It the same with your new machine. Oh don't start adjusting everything right out of the gate.

Edited June 11, 2012 by dirtclod

[raysouth]

Thanks dirtclod. I have plenty of scraps but know nothing about all of the different attachments received with the machine, nor how to use them. I have learned via the old timers school of hard knocks, that going through life does not necessarily make us smart enogh to do everything. I do well when able to read something about the topic of interest. Seems to give me a starting point and, at times, explains the to do's and the not to do's that can be very helpful. I wish there was a leathercrafter here in my area that could lend a hand but seems to be a craft not practiced by others.

Thank you, again for the suggestion.

God Bless.

Ray

.

[tnawrot2]

Don't be concerned with all the attachments now, learn the basics first and then learn to use the attachments. Make sure you are using the correct thread for your needle size, set it at 5 to 6 stitches per inch, and set the servo motor to go slow. When you first start stitching your leather, hold the top and bottom thread towards the back for about three stitches, this will eliminate a lot of thread bunching problems. Do not try to force your leather, let the machine go at its own pace.

[raysouth]

Thank you for the encouragement. I suppose that I will have to do something with it one day as I was very excited about getting such a machine. Health issues have me rethinking everything so may have to give it a shot soon.

Invested much in the leathercraft area and want to use everything I can before selling out the entire workshop. The machine sewing is one of the areas I would love to learn so must take all the advice I can get and see if I can do it soon.

Thank you and God Bless.

Ray

[Dwight]

Another thing you might do, Ray, . . . go to a local Tandy shop, . . . see if there is a leather guild in the area. If there is, . . . there are people there that would be more than happy to teach you.

Another source for instruction, . . . you might go to a SASS or CASS shoot, . . . often times there are dealers there, . . . they have machines. You may be able to hire one of them as an instructor.

Lots of people out there mess around with leather, . . . put a posting on Craig's list.

Anyway, . . . good luck, . . . may God bless,

Dwight

[Luke Hatley]

Helmut...where in the southeast are you ?

ALSO check out You Tube..you'll see a lot of sewing videos thers..

Edited June 12, 2012 by Luke Hatley

[UKRay]

Just get some leather and start sewing. Don't try to make anything, just explore the potential of the machine. Tty stitching in a straight line to start with. Then try stitching down the edge of a piece of leather. Then try following curving lines and turning right angled corners. Sooner or later you will find yourself making something just for fun. I started by making tool covers - I still have more round knife covers than knives! lol

Having been a hand stitcher for years, buying my first machine was a real adventure. Scary but fun. Remember to keep your fingers from under the foot!

Enjoy,

Ray

[Tree Reaper]

Just get ready, post what you want to sew before you sew it and you'll get help.

I just bought a machine also and the machine is very easy to operate.

I still have trouble on angled corners to get it exact but I don't use the machine enough.

Get into the sewing machine forum below, the people there really know their sewing machines.

Kevin

[raysouth]

Thank you, Dwight.

Tandy shop @100 miles away and no guilds around here. Have not been able to find another leathercrafter in the area. I think I am in an area of limbo or never-never land. Have met a few ceramic folks that are involved at the local arts and craft center but nobody working with leather. I will try Craigslist as I did sell a few of my estate items there as well.

I appreciate the responce and will keep at it.

God Bless.

Ray

Another thing you might do, Ray, . . . go to a local Tandy shop, . . . see if there is a leather guild in the area. If there is, . . . there are people there that would be more than happy to teach you.

Another source for instruction, . . . you might go to a SASS or CASS shoot, . . . often times there are dealers there, . . . they have machines. You may be able to hire one of them as an instructor.

Lots of people out there mess around with leather, . . . put a posting on Craig's list.

Anyway, . . . good luck, . . . may God bless,

Dwight

[raysouth]

Hello Luke.

I am located in Opelika, Al., about 30 or so miles west of Columbus, Ga., and @ 65 miles east of Montgomery, Al., just off I-85. Also about 100 miles southwest of Atlanta. Sister city to Auburn, Al.

Small city but growing fast. Growth comprised of few small companies and shopping malls. If ever in the area, drop a line and visit a spell.

God Bless.

Ray

[raysouth]

Hello Ray, and thank you for the advice. Promise not to put fingers in the way. Scary thought as am on blood thinner and very cautious around anything sharp.

I just may have to get up the courage to try the machine and see if I can make a stitch. lol I apprciate the time folks take to respond and lifts ones spirits.

God Bless.

Ray

[raysouth]

Thanks Kevin. Must take a look at the sewing machine forum. Had a bit of an issue when buying machine and someone there put me onto machine I purchased, He was some sewing machine guru, I believe, but can't remember the name. Old timers syndrome, I suppose. Ever walk across the room to get something and when you got there you couldn't remember what it was you were seeking? Have had to return to my starting point and then all of a sudden I remembered what I wanted but got smart, and wrote it down but forgot to carry with me. ckl. Life is great but always full of surprises.

God Bless.

Ray

[Luke Hatley]

Ray have you looked at "You Tube" for sewing Videos there are a lot of them..

[benlilly1]

If you don't have any guilds or Tandy close by what about befriending an upholstery shop. They have heavy duty machines and could show you attachments and use. Just a thought. Other than that as said in other posts YouTube videos could be of assistance.

[raysouth]

Thank you, Benlilly. Hope I got the spelling correct.

Have visited a local upholsterer and nice guy but so busy and he said he is not much of a "teacher" of anything. Thought about taking a junior college course that he had taken to learn his craft but when I contacted the school, I learned that they had just discontinued the upholstery program. lol. Not much happening around here.

God Bless,

Ray

[raysouth]

Hey Luke,

Have looked at some of the you tube videos and great information in some of them. My machine is about 100 yards from where computer is so not able to tie the two together for now. Videos are difficult for me as the Verizon ZBroadband connection is a bit faster that dial-up but still very slow. Cable won't run their connection to my building unless I am willing to pay @4.00 ft. for 900 feet of cable. They run in front of the property and my building is about two thirds back into my place. Phone company, which I have cancelled, had no service avaulable in my area for high spped dsl. Life is grand. ckl.

Many times I think that I should have remained in the city but when I look around me, that feeling rapidly disappears. Love the wildlife and greenery around me.

I think I will grab my cane, hop in my buggy, and get myself to the shop to experiment a bit with finish and polish concoctions. I feel like a mad chemist with no idea of what I am doing. ckl. At least I am having fun and this site makes thing even better for me.

All of the folks reaching out to help are indeed, a genuine pleasure. God Bless you all.

Ray

[particle]

Ignore all the various feet and base plates for a while. Just use the standard double-toe foot and flat base plate that allows the use of the lower feed dog for now (assuming your machine has a lower feed dog). As you sew a particular type of project, you will quickly learn which presser foot works best for a given application. The only way to really know which presser foot to use is from experience. For example, when I first got my Tippmann Boss, I quickly realized the standard flat base plate wasn't going to work with my Avenger style holsters because of the way the reinforcement piece wraps around the back on my design (the needle was going through the holster at an angle). So, I had to order the stirrup plate to raise the holster off the base a bit. The double-toe presser foot is the only foot I ever used on that machine, and I never took the stirrup plate off the machine for any other type of project. That doesn't make it right or wrong - it just seemed to work fine like that for me.

Along came the Cobra Class 4 that I bought recently. It came with a holster plate and a stirrup plate (among one or two others). From my past experience with my Boss, I knew the holster plate wasn't going to work for me because of the way the plate is designed. It may work fine for everyone else, but not for me and my particular holster design. So, I tried the stirrup plate. It works great, but I had to modify mine to remove the top radius so the holster would stay flat and not rock forwards and backwards. Unfortunately, the stirrup plate won't really allow me to use the left-toe presser foot because the left side is too thin and the left toe only makes a very small amount of contact with the stirrup plate. So, unless I am able to weld a piece of steel to the left side of the stirrup plate to widen the contact point, I'm stuck using the double-toe presser foot. Typically speaking, I could do 100% of my sewing using the left-toe presser foot and the modified stirrup plate (after thickening the left face of it), but the only way to know that is by experience with my particular type of sewing.

Bottom line - don't over think it. Just hold the top & bottom thread for a few stitches, then rock-on. Practice until you've burned through a few bobbins to get a feel for the machine, being sure to sew lots of curves too - not just straight lines. Use reverse to practice lock-stitches. Practice stepping up and down off additional thicknesses of leather (the stitch length can get too long if the presser foot slides off the edge of another piece of leather.

Above all else, don't expect the stitching to look nearly as nice as hand-stitching. It's just not gonna happen. Thankfully, you can always dampen the leather on the back and hammer the puckering flat. At the end of the day, think of all the hours you can save by not having to hand stitch, and you can quickly look past the "not as nice" look of the machine stitching.

[Sylvia]

Ray:

Just like any machine it takes some time to learn to run. As the others have said... start slow, practice on scrap, keep the fingers out of the way.... but don't be too afraid of it. It's just a machine.

As for High Speed internet. You might want to consider Satellite DSL. Here's a link to one provider. http://www.hughesnet.com/residential-satellite-internet/plans.cfm

1mbps is plenty of bandwidth to watch some videos online.

sylv

[raysouth]

Thank you, Particle. As it now stands, I don't believe that there are any books about this subject so will have to go the trial and error route, I suppose. All of the adjustments are confusing but will dig in soon and see if I can make a go of it. I take each day as a learning experience and hope to learn how to handle the machine before I get the curtain call. I look at it every day and wonder when I will get around to fooling with it. Soon, I hope. After I received the machine, I had a few additional health issues and seems as though I have forgotten just what I intended for the machine. Will figure it out, especially now that I am receiving so much support on the site. Great place to be.

Thank you again and God Bless.

Ray

Ignore all the various feet and base plates for a while. Just use the standard double-toe foot and flat base plate that allows the use of the lower feed dog for now (assuming your machine has a lower feed dog). As you sew a particular type of project, you will quickly learn which presser foot works best for a given application. The only way to really know which presser foot to use is from experience. For example, when I first got my Tippmann Boss, I quickly realized the standard flat base plate wasn't going to work with my Avenger style holsters because of the way the reinforcement piece wraps around the back on my design (the needle was going through the holster at an angle). So, I had to order the stirrup plate to raise the holster off the base a bit. The double-toe presser foot is the only foot I ever used on that machine, and I never took the stirrup plate off the machine for any other type of project. That doesn't make it right or wrong - it just seemed to work fine like that for me.

Along came the Cobra Class 4 that I bought recently. It came with a holster plate and a stirrup plate (among one or two others). From my past experience with my Boss, I knew the holster plate wasn't going to work for me because of the way the plate is designed. It may work fine for everyone else, but not for me and my particular holster design. So, I tried the stirrup plate. It works great, but I had to modify mine to remove the top radius so the holster would stay flat and not rock forwards and backwards. Unfortunately, the stirrup plate won't really allow me to use the left-toe presser foot because the left side is too thin and the left toe only makes a very small amount of contact with the stirrup plate. So, unless I am able to weld a piece of steel to the left side of the stirrup plate to widen the contact point, I'm stuck using the double-toe presser foot. Typically speaking, I could do 100% of my sewing using the left-toe presser foot and the modified stirrup plate (after thickening the left face of it), but the only way to know that is by experience with my particular type of sewing.

Bottom line - don't over think it. Just hold the top & bottom thread for a few stitches, then rock-on. Practice until you've burned through a few bobbins to get a feel for the machine, being sure to sew lots of curves too - not just straight lines. Use reverse to practice lock-stitches. Practice stepping up and down off additional thicknesses of leather (the stitch length can get too long if the presser foot slides off the edge of another piece of leather.

Above all else, don't expect the stitching to look nearly as nice as hand-stitching. It's just not gonna happen. Thankfully, you can always dampen the leather on the back and hammer the puckering flat. At the end of the day, think of all the hours you can save by not having to hand stitch, and you can quickly look past the "not as nice" look of the machine stitching.

[raysouth]

Hello Sylvia.

Thank you for the suggestions. Will probably get brave in next day or so, and begin by attempting to wind a bobbin full of thread. Then on to some scraps. Recent events have curtailed a lot of additional activities and wife said I should sell all of my leatherworking goodies. A woman from Birmingham visited a short time ago and said I should call her if I decided to sell the leathercraft items, ( I have a load of tools and other supplies), but I really wanted to try machine sewing, and will figure out why soon. ckl. Amazing how much we can gather together and never give it a thought. Hard to understand where I got all these goodies but must have been fun along the way. I think I should call the "pickers" and let them go through the shop. Might be fun.

On a serious note, I enjoy leathercrafting and do a good bit of pyrography on leather. Previously on wood until I found how pleasant it was to do on leather. Again, thank you for the suggestions and will see what transpires in days to come.

God Bless.

Ray

Ray:

Just like any machine it takes some time to learn to run. As the others have said... start slow, practice on scrap, keep the fingers out of the way.... but don't be too afraid of it. It's just a machine.

As for High Speed internet. You might want to consider Satellite DSL. Here's a link to one provider. http://www.hughesnet...ernet/plans.cfm

1mbps is plenty of bandwidth to watch some videos online.

sylv

[Stan]

Howdy! Google Arthur Porter on the videos on "You Tube". He is the coolest man alive and has videos about using all kinds of machines. The best part is, he will make a "mistake" and show how to fix it. His videos are sometimes - long - , but very well worth your time. Good Luck, Stan

[TinkerTailor]

Howdy! Google Arthur Porter on the videos on "You Tube". He is the coolest man alive and has videos about using all kinds of machines. The best part is, he will make a "mistake" and show how to fix it. His videos are sometimes - long - , but very well worth your time. Good Luck, Stan

I think his information is top notch. I can't say the same for the sense of style however.....lol Each to their own.