Occasionally Making Western Show Chaps

[appendix]

If someone could help I would appreciate it. I am looking to make my daughters horsemanship chaps for showing. I have no plans/interest in doing any kind of other leatherwork beyond potentially some lightweight applique on the horsemanship shirts as well. The chaps would be the heaviest thing going and they will not be everyday work chaps. The entire reason for me doing it in the first place is she is growing like a weed and doesn't show that heavily, so I don't want to be forking out regularly for custom made show chaps, cost is an issue. Other show moms keep telling me they make their own on their home machines, but the one I quilt on will croak, it can barely do what it does now. So I need to know if the older singers can really do this kind of work? What kind of machine should I be looking for? I know it has been beaten to death, I have looked at the forums but you are talking way over my head for the most part. I am just starting to try and get a feel for what I will need to be doing. Need to learn about the different leathers too, so any advice there would be appreciated as well. A good number of the moms use ultrasuede but the idea kind of makes me shudder....

[thekid77]

Ask Chuck Burrows on this forum...he does all kinds of beautiful frontier leather work, including chaps...I would assume that he'd have an answer for you. Hope this helps =)

[GrampaJoel]

You can sew them by hand. There isn't a lot of sewing to sew on a yoke for a young girl.

A simple pair can be made without sewing at all.

I make chinks often, I have several styles, and I have a design that only has sewing on the yoke.

You can also buck stitch the yoke on.

The only limits are your skills and immagination.

I have seen some imitation leather that is very light weight that would sew on a regular sewing machine, and it looks pretty real if not put under the microscope.

Edited July 3, 2013 by GrampaJoel

[appendix]

I have to place zippers in them unfortunately

[Dwight]

You have a private message, . . . double click the red box in the upper right corner.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Icutcows2]

I'm new to this site but have been making chaps along with everything else for over 25 years. I also have shown western pleasure horses so I'm familiar with doing show chaps. The Hide & Leather House has what is called "Plonge", it's light weight,comes in several colors and works really well for show chaps.It's smoooth on the grain side and ruff on the flesh side so you can do either smooth out or ruff out chaps. They also have "Garment Splits" that are ruff out on both sides and come in a lot of colors. The garment splits are less in price. Their web site is, www,hidehouse.com. Home sewingmachines can do the job with some breath holding at times. There is whats called "leather needles" for them which do help. I have an older model Singer 111W155 which works great and can use up to size 207 thread and will sew belts,spur straps,etc. as well as any chaps or chinks. I also have an Artisan 797 that works great and has reverse so that's a big plus. I also have a roller foot Singer 111W155 that I use a lot on rodeo chaps because of all the cut outs and sewing letters for logo's on. The other two machines will do this but the roller foot just makes it a little easier. There are several other machines out there that will wwork just fine for chaps, these are just what I have along with heavier duty stitcher as well. I taught the chap class at Sheridan for several years and took all 3 machines so students could get a feel for what worked for them. If you have any more questions I'll try to help what I can. Cody

[appendix]

Thank you for the reply

I have a singer 15-91 for quilting, will it do for occasional use to make these things (I am talking one pair a year tops- i am hoping to get every other year out of them). I know everyone here wants me to have a dedicated leather machine but it isn't happening for this.

[Icutcows2]

I did some research on your machine as I wasn't that familiar with it. From what I found you should be able to sew show chaps with no rpoblems, especially when using lighter weight leather as is the case most of the time for these. Leather in weights from 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 oz is the most common especially for ladies since you can get a nice fit with a little bit of stretch or at least forgiveness to the fit. Does your machine have the potted motor ? Which means it's a direct drive and doesn't have a belt to run the machine. If so that's a plus as it will have a little more power since there is no belt to slip if it gets into some tuffer material. Either way it should do the job. Also the ones I found had reverse so if yours has that also that's a big plus. A size 16-17 needle with size 69 thread is what I use most of the time. It comes in a lot of colors and is strong enough to last and not break while sewing as I found happened when I tried some lighter thread, had an odd color to match. I'm no sewing machine expert but the first one I ever got was a treddle machine that I traded a belt for. It had been in a barn for who know's how long and to say the least was pretty dirty. I took it all apart to clean it so I figured out how a sewing works, at least a simple one which is the basis for most of them with some variations. As far as sewing the zippers in it shouldn't be a big deal either, at the most I'm only sewing through two layers of leather at some of the stress points like at the top inside of the leg and the cuffs at the bottom. I use only brass teeth zippers, they hold up great and I have found the aluminum teeth would wear and catch some over a period of time. I also rubb parrafin on the teeth to help them slide better when new. I'm sure there are other products for this but I always have the parrafin wax on hand since I use it for finishing edges. Hope this helps some, and if you have any more questions just ask away. I think over the years I'm made just about every mistake imaginable so I learn how to fix most of them. Happy sewing!! Cody

[appendix]

yes, it is the one w/ the potted motor. And yes the post is tons of help. I'll probably ask tons more questions if it's ok once I get to actually sewing. I think I"m going to fit a muslin pair to her first. Even making them myself the things are going to be too expensive to screw up. I haven't bought a pattern yet, do you have any recommendations? and how is the fringe handled- just cut in or is it added on from a separate piece of material? I am assuming the pattern will give me a yardage or square footage estimate as well and the leather shop will help me translate that into the number or part of hide i would need?

[Icutcows2]

When I first made a pattern I used cloth to wrap around a person to figure it out since I didn't know where to get any pre-designed patterens. I drew a center line sort of to act like a crease on a pair of pants, then used a marker to draw the lines on where the zipper line would lie, the shape of the top and bottom. I then connected to dots so to speak and cut it out and put it back on the person. With a couple of minor adjustments it worked out fine and I used that to develop future ones. Since I make a lot of styles and sizes now I have many in small-medium-large, and so on. As far as getting a pattern I'd surf the internet. I haven't looked for any for a long time. Western Horseman magazine had and add for a while about patterns for chaps, vests, and other show clothes from a place in California. I'll try to see if I can find the name of the place since I same all the magazines. Depending on size of the person and the type of leather you decide to use that will determine if you cut the fringe in body or add it on. Split hides aren't usually large enough to cut the fringe in body with the leg and need to be added. Top grain sides will allow you to do it depending on the size of person you are making them for. Hide House has the top grain sides I use most often and they call it Cowside Leather. It's a 3-3 1/2 oz and comes in over 40 colors. They are normally very large and are very good quality. Sheridan Leather is another good source for some great leather depending on your location. One large side will do both legs normally on a youth,small, or most medium sized patterns depending on the style and height. Hope this helps some and ask all the questions you can think of. I'll help all I can. I'm new on here and still trying to figure out how to do and find things on here, a computer wiz I'm certainly not. I did post some pictures you can look at in the gallery of some chaps. There might be a better place to put them but I haven't figured that out yet. It only took me 2 weeks to get signing up on here right!