I Can Stitch Perfectly At 6Spi But Not At 9Spi. Whats Wrong?

[DavidL]

When I was making a small leather roll for my tools I used an overstitch wheel at 6spi to stitch 2 garment leather pieces together and the stitching came out nicely. But when I stitch with a pricking iron at 9spi with the same tools but smaller thread .57mm vs 1mm on the 6spi the stitching came out not as expected.

So my question to you is what is causing the 9 spi stitched item to look crummy. My technique is - back needle first then front needle goes under the needle that came through the back and goes on the top of the hole. The front slopes up and to the left and the back slopes down

p.s I used a 38mm awl on both spi, same technique and used garment leather on both

Thank you.

[mlapaglia]

^{Pictures please to show us what good vs crummy looks like.}

^{it will help}

[DavidL]

6 spi good stitching

9 spi bad stitching

9 spi back of wallet

[mlapaglia]

What size needles are you using?

[DavidL]

john james size 2 1mm in diameter. The issue I feel is that there is a lot of room in the hole for the thread to move around so the stitch doesn't sit as tight as the thicker thread maybe different leather would help but I'm still unsure.

[dirtclod]

Sounds to me like you need a smaller awl blade.

[electrathon]

Loose the overstitch wheel and get a pricking iron (good japan is reasonable). It will make all of your sewing look better.

[Matt T]

Your holes are too big for that size thread, and you need to be consistent with how you stitch every single stitch. If you put the left needle in first, then put the right needle in first on the next stitch, it's going to look weird. If you pull back differently each time, it's going to look weird. Everything you do can affect the look, and you must be consistent at all times.

[DavidL]

Loose the overstitch wheel and get a pricking iron (good japan is reasonable). It will make all of your sewing look better.

I have both the pricking iron from goods japan and one from vergez blanchard both 9 spi

Your holes are too big for that size thread, and you need to be consistent with how you stitch every single stitch. If you put the left needle in first, then put the right needle in first on the next stitch, it's going to look weird. If you pull back differently each time, it's going to look weird. Everything you do can affect the look, and you must be consistent at all times.

Im having trouble having the awl go through at the same spot on the backside of the leather no matter how straight it looked when i pierced the leather a few will come out of line and make the stitch look undersirable. How do you keep the hole straight is there a method or is that all with practice?

[Matt T]

David, I get a straight hole by putting a chunk of beeswax with a flat surface up against the back side of the leather before pushing the awl through. Make sure to hold the awl at the same angle every time. The beeswax also helps me to control how far my awl goes in.