Stitch Or Lace Deerskin?

[leatherman13]

Hello all,

I've tried doing research on stitching/lacing deerskin but haven't found anything relevant. I've made some small deerskin pouches using an old Morse sewing machine with upholstery thread and had good results. I'm wanting to step up to deerskin handbags, but most of the ones I've seen are laced. I like to handstitch my bags (see example pics) and was wondering if that was OK to do on deerskin because of stretching. I wouldn't mind lacing a few but need to acquire a lace cutter for matching lace. Or does it even matter - both are fine and it's just aesthetics? I'm still a newbie and coming up on a year working on leather as a hobby. Any advice would be helpful and appreciated. Thanks!

[medsar]

Bucskins (I assume you are referring to buckskins) are essentially suede. <hiding and ducking for cover from the people who brain-tan their own deerskins to buckskins>

So, yes, you do have worry about stretching...somewhat. Buckskins are very tough for their thickness. If my memory of moccasins serves me well, buckskins were second only to moose leather for both toughness and ability grip the ground. So unless you are making something that will have a lot of linear tension on the leather, I wouldn't worry about it. For bags, I would hide an inner lining of diamond rip-stop nylon where there is going to be the most tension to prevent stretching. In fact, I do that on the leather bags I make out of 2-3oz leather with suede inner linings.

As to stitching...I think the reason we see so much lacing used to stitching buckskins is because that is the culture of the people who look for items made of buckskins. You can do either depending on your application/design. Aussie stranders are on sale at Tandy right now.

[leatherman13]

Thanks Medsar. I am referring to buckskins. Sorry, I just recently found out how fantastic they are and realizing that buckskin is the preferred name. I thought that a lining would help. I would hope the ladies I would be making these for wouldn't include the kitchen sink to minimize the stretching. The stitching was, in my mind, a way to get away from lacing and hopefully create something different and hopefully still appealing. The big bag mfrs, use it a lot and, of course theirs is machine sewn (I'm a long way off from buying the right machine) and I will be using theirs as a guide for designs. One last item, the Aussie stranders are for a straight line cut? Would that work or an Osborne 1000 that is the circular cut?

Thanks again.....