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Posted

When making purses from upholstery and garment weight leather, what size thread, needle and stitch length do you recommend for machine sewing the seams?

How about 3/4 oz vegtan?

Thanks

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Posted

I use upholstery thread from Joann Fabric, . . . run it in a simple home type sewing machine for the most part.

May God bless,

Dwight

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Posted

Hey Dwight. Hmm.. I didn't think the upholstery thread would actually be strong enough, but rethinking it, I guess it would be close to the #69 thread. I did my first test sewing with 138, size 23 needle on a Singer 111W155. And still got a machine stall when I went over the bottom seam where 4 layers met (3oz ea).

This is only my second bag, and I learned a lot so far. It's one of Arthur Porter's tutorial designs. It's the gusset-less one. First, I got stingy with the amount of selvege, and sewed too close to the edge. And because of this, I didn't flatten that side seam at the bottom, and had to sew the 4 layers instead of just 3. Made a big difference.

I'll give the upholstery thread a test and see how it does in the small machine...

BTW, have you ever used that clear poly "fishing line" thread on a machine?

  • 3 weeks later...
  • Members
Posted

I use size 138 thread because I want the stitching to be pronounced. 69 thread or thinner is what is used on lots of mass-produced items. The weight of thread and stitching spacing depends a lot on the look you are going for, the type of purse/bag and it's intended audience and use, strength, etc. You could always pick a starting point and adjust from there, say, 69 thread and 10 spi then see if you want thicker or longer stitches, and go from there.

  • 3 weeks later...
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Posted

I been making leather bags with a canvas liner

mostly use 92 thread 20 needle. my consew 206 seems to like the combo

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Posted

I have made 4-5 bags/purses, and I use #138 thread and a #22 needle on my consew 206. 138 might be a bit big unless you want to really see the stitches. I am thinking abou moving to size 92 for future bags.

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