Selfmade Stitching Clamp Finished

[Sona]

As I sewed a long time without any clamp or pony I bought one of these "cheap" Tandy stitching ponys and was satisfied with it... for about three to four months... as an improvement to "nothing" it works quite fine, but in the end I started to modify it to fit to my needs, but actually I still wasn´t that happy. So there had to be the next step: I needed a good new stitching clamp. And for sure it would be selfmade

So first of all here some pictures

I like to work with pretty tools and maybe I want to use it on some Larp-events, too, so I decorated the leather parts on the jaws a bit and used an old chest-hinge I had remaining from my traineeship as a woodworker with some iron nails. For the hinge and the leather parts I deepened the wood so they are flush with the wooden surface so there isn´t any possibility the thread could get caught by any parts of the clamp. Hope you can see that on the pictures. The clamp itself is made out of white-ash, oiled and waxed. Hope you like it

[Macca]

sehr schön !

[Sona]

danke dir

[Macca]

now you've lost me

only joking, my German isn't THAT bad

[Sona]

Haha I always hope, my english isn´t that bad, too ^^. It´s still kinda funny, to get a german reply here Actually I didn´t expect that *laugh*

But still I am glad u like it.

I worked a little with that clamp and I think, I will adjust some things from time to time, but for itself, it´s a lot of fun

[Crimson Hides]

Very sleek looking stitching clamp you made. May I know what you use to hold the leather to the jaw of clamp? Thank you.

[Sona]

Thank you. For the leather I just used a contact cement ("pattex") and used some clamps for a tight bonding. But some wood glue f.e. should work fine, too if you clamp it just giht to the wood.

[Riemer]

I believe he means what do you use to lock the clamp while you're working on the leather?

[Sona]

Sry, my fault ^^.

I just put the clamp on my left thigh and my right leg over the clamp. That´s all. It works, but maybe I´ll add some sort of leatherstrap to tighten it up while sewing or to pull the upper jaw with my right foot, if you understand, what I mean

[Renoir]

I built my own pony too

Based on the design at http://www.wrtcleather.com/1-ckd/tutorials/_stitchpony.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56285539@N06/9608175805/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56285539@N06/9608176657/

The funny looking triangle thing is left over from an Ikea curtain rail. It works great as a handle to do the bolt up.

The angled needle underneath is to help the thread loop slip over the bolt without catching.

I glued a couple of cosmetic foam wedges to the front ( I wrapped mine in pigskin - next time I won't bother). This gives me somewhere to put the needles if I have to put it down half-way through.

I also drilled a 4mm hole and stuffed with foam - allows me to shove the awl in there and keeps it handy.

Nice work on yours!

[Sona]

Thank you You got some really nice ideas for your pony. Sounds as they´d be nice to-haves, and I think I might add one or two of them to my clamp. Thanks fpr the inspiration

[Jazznow]

Very nice sona. Like it so much. Where are you from in Germany? I'm living next to Dortmund.

[Sona]

Thanks Jazznow. I live near munich, but originally I´m from S-H

[Jazznow]

Lol, I grew up in sh too, little village next to hamburg. Back to topic: any chance you write up a tutorial?

[Black Dogg]

Sieht echt klasse aus, die Klemme!!

Ich habe mir eine nach dem Plan in Al Stohlman's Art of Handsewing Leather Buch gebaut. Deine ist allerdings wesentlich schoener!

Black Dogg

(ein ehemaliger Deutscher, seit etlichen Jahren in den USA)

[Sona]

Danke dir

Stohlmans Kloben wird aber wahrscheinlich auch darauf ausgerichtet sein, dass man ihn mit Hausmitteln nachbauen kann, oder? (Ich hab das Buch leider noch nicht) Das wird bei meinem schon schwieriger ^^.

Writing a tutorial might be interesting. The biggest Problem might be, that I didn´t take any pictures while building this one, so it might be a little bit difficult to describe it. Actually, I might make me one or two more (for different situations while sewing). Even if it might take a little, I´ll try to keep that in mind and make some pics. Might be a lot easier... for me to write/describe and for you to understand ^^.

[King's X]

Great work by both of you. Nice looking stitching ponies.