Hand Stitching Beginner - Minimum Tools Required?

[makiba]

I'm a beginner looking to make a small, simple bag. I've watched a few video tutorials and it seems in terms of tools - if I just buy an awl, that might be all I need to get started - is this correct?

I've got some standard, heavy needles as well.

I ask as I was looking at the www.GoodsJapan.com page for awls and it says the awl should be used with a stitching punch - I thought the awl was used to punch the stitching hole so I'm a bit confused what a stitching punch is? Do I need one?

I'm also confused as to what size to buy. I have some medium heavy leather for a small bag - would a small or medium sized awl suit this?

I'm aiming to buy as few tools as possible, but prefer good quality tools - from what I've seen on the site Blanchard or GoodsJapan should be ok?

Is it impossible to do without a stitching clam to hold the leather?

Thanks very much for your help!

[Matt T]

If you are just trying to practice, you can get by with just an awl. Maybe you can use a ruler along the edge of your work to mark where your stitches will go. The awl from GoodsJapan that you are looking at has the same shape as the holes from their pricking punches. Their punches are designed to go all the way through the leather, as opposed to other types of pricking irons. You can still use that awl to make one off holes, or to hold the holes from the pricking punch open while stitching.

I would recommend around 7SPI as a starting SPI. It will match well with 0.8mm thread and will be good fit for a small bag.

Make sure to research pricking irons before spending your money - Neil Armitage has reviews on several different types.

You can stitch without a sewing clamp, it will just be more difficult; And you might teach yourself bad habits - I have an expensive sewing clamp, but don't use it because I'm not accustomed to it.

[makiba]

Thanks Matt, really appreciate all the info!

[byggyns]

Basics needed are tools to mark your stitch lines: wing divider, ruler, or compass.

Something to mark your stitch distance: ruler, overstitch wheel, stitching chisels or pricking irons.

An awl: use a diamond awl in a middle size. Sharpen it to bleedingly sharp and strop it.

I also strongly suggest a clamp or stitching pony / horse. It helps so much to have a 3rd hand while you stitch. You tend to get more even and regular stitches when you don't have to juggle the work piece.

[TinkerTailor]

2 boards and 2 c-clamps make a basic cheap stitching clamp that will work for wallets and belts and things. Bit of a pain to reposition, but once in place it will free up your hands to stitch. Holding the work while stitching can make things harder, and a stitching clamp holds softer leathers straight, which makes it way easier to keep the backside stitches from straying.

Edited January 13, 2016 by TinkerTailor

[Black Dogg]

Makiba,

all of the above is good advice.

I'd like to add that the best thing to learn hand-stitching step-by-step for me was Al Stohlman's book "The Art of Handsewing Leather". It is VERY detailed and even includes plans for building your own stitching horse. Well worth the investment!!!!

Best of luck and have fun!!

Black Dogg

[snubbyfan]

When I first started, I had a pair of dividers, an overstitch wheel, a scratch awl to punch the holes, craft needles and some nylon blind cord. I worked at a factory that made blinds and dug rolls of rejected blind cord out of the trash.

Not a very good picture but one of my early attempts.

I saved up and got more tools as I could afford them. Now I use either a stitch groover or the dividers, stitching chisels with 3mm spacing and 000 needles. I have a variety of waxed threads to use depending on the look I want. I use a stitching awl if the leather I want to stitch is thicker than my chisels are long.

I still don't have a proper stitching pony yet. Instead I use a wood clamp on my work bench.

Eventually, I had so much stuff I had to make a box to hold it all.

Edited January 14, 2016 by snubbyfan

[zuludog]

As a beginner you may well buy tools from Tandy

Their 4-in-1 awl is expensive, and not wery good

You'd be better getting a separate scratch awl & saddler's awl with fixed blades, which would be better, and almost half the price

4-in-1 awl 3209 - 00 £33-69

Scratch awl 3217 - 00 £4-20

Stitching awl with blade 31218 - 01 £14-35

Edited January 14, 2016 by zuludog

[makiba]

Thanks very much everyone!

Tinker Tailor I'll look into making a clamp of some kind - the ones I saw were a hundred bucks or so, thought I should at least try a few stitches first :-)

Really nice work snubbyfan! thanks for posting the pics. Nice stamp too. I'm also hoping to just bit by bit buy some quality tools.

I'll try and get a hold of that book Black Dogg

And thanks zululdog and byggyns - it's really helpful to see what others recommend or use themselves - hard to make decisions without this info at the beginning.

Have a good weekend everyone, thanks again!

[ConradPark]

Hi, while I do think most things already been said in one way or another about this topic over the years, I wish to repeat some things said by others and myself again - for your benefit, hopefully

Basically, my humble and very personal opinion is; (please, no remarks about the correctness of this article, this is only my own two pennies of thoughts. Not an attempt to a rule book of any kind, so for anyone that disagrees - and are inclined to be argumentative, as there undoubtedly are - leave any arguments for another topic, another day, elsewhere. Thanks for your cooperation beforehand.)

You only need some thread, one diamond/sewing awl, scratch awl (round), some beeswax (some white candles can substitute - even if the paraffin is a bit harder - I sometimes use tea candles when I've been too lazy to stock up with beeswax), saddle/stitching needles, a couple of forks, wet&dry sandpaper (recommend 400,600,1000,2000 grit), a carpet knife or similar hobby knife, a lint free towel, piece of canvas or denim (but don't use a piece from a pair of new or selvedge as they rub of color), some thick paper and a pencil and a ruler. And here in the UK you could get this for under £20 from different hardware stores. Well, you need the leather as well of course! A kind of glue might seem preferable here, but one can be without it. Cumbersome, but possible and that's why I have left it out from the basics.

Everything else is either luxury because you can afford it or because you feel lazy or you need it to produce special items or a special look or have a time constraint of some reason - and need to speed things up, like if you sell things on a regular basis, i.e. a professional.

There are other things to get that makes things a lot easier, however, it's very arguable and very personal what this would be and in what order, personally I would start to get or make a stitching pony (two pieces of waist long wood and some kind of clamp goes a long way if you're on a budget). A pair of pliers is also very under rated - especially when your fingers are sore after hand stitching an hour or so (however that need does disappear after a few weeks if you hand stitch every day and avoid hand moisturiser...) and the third thing I would get is some white glue/wood glue/PVA, as this is a great and very adequate to bond leather together and much cheaper than buying branded leather glue. However, it has to be said, for larger items and for a long lasting items, nothing beats traditional lethal neoprene rubber adhesive, also called contact cement.
The trick to using white glue successfully with leather is to dilute it slightly with water - a thick creamy consistence is fine, thick like yogurt is not. Like milk is also way too much watery. After spreading it as thin as possible on both surfaces that are going to be bonded, wait those minutes it takes for the glue to be sticky when touching it, instead of wet. And after pressing it together, you need to put weight on and wipe away any excess glue with a slightly wet cloth. And wait for it to dry well, probably an hour, but preferable over night if you're going to stitch it (this takes time. That's why using contact cement is much quicker, more expensive and more dangerous for your health and the environment). And most likely it will separate in places when you stitch. Don't worry, this is how it is for everyone.

A thread is a personal preference and will take some time and experience to get the hang of what you need or want. Start with a basic linen thread. Thickness is of course very personal but I would start with something like size 4/18 as this is a good size for all round projects. I also recommend getting a natural or off white/bone colored thread as I noticed that most beginners have difficulties to keep bleach white thread - white, for long, as they tend to dirty their hands quickly.
While it's not economical in the long run I would still get smaller samples/length of thread, that will last only a couple of projects than to spend money on full big spool/rolls as there is a big risk that you will still have them in a drawer somewhere a few years later. Better to wait until you know that you will use a specific kind of thread in a specific kind of size and color, over and over again (an 8 ounce spool - which seems to be a common size - literally last for hundreds of wallets, so think about it).

You need one diamond shaped awl for the stitching and needles that fits the size of thread and the size of the awl - bigger/thicker with all or smaller/thinner with them all.
The scratch awl, you use for general pattern marking in leather and to make stitching holes larger when necessary. Never use the diamond awl for this as the tip is much, much easier to dull than on a scratch awl (not to mention that a scratch awl only cost a quid in the pound store) and the diamond awl will also cut the thread like a knife if you try to make a stitching hole larger while the thread is still there).

The 2000 grit wet&dry sandpaper is to sharpen your diamond awl, as with knives - this is of the greatest importance to have as trouble free stitching as possible - plenty of YouTube tutorials to show you how to best do this. While I know that a sharpening stone and leather with a polishing compound is the correct way to sharpen things, that will cost more money and takes more skill. My point is to point out how you can achieve great result with minimal tools and substitute special trade tools with more every day items or common hardware store ware for as little cost as possible.
The 400/600/1000 grit is to use for sanding down the edges prior to and between burnish the edges when your project is finished. Here, one sheet of sandpaper cost around 20 pence. Also, always use them dry!

Beeswax is to smooth the thread - regardless if your thread is already waxed or not, you need to keep waxing it as the wax get scraped of the thread after a few stitches and after that it starts to fray and discolor and split really quickly. You avoid this by waxing your thread often. No need to wax your stitching awl if you keep the thread constantly waxed. If you find it troublesome where there are several layers, use the scratch awl to widen instead. If you always find it troublesome to pull the needle and thread through, you either need to use a larger diamond awl or a smaller/thinner needle and thread.
Also use the wax for some old school finishing on your burnished edges.

Here is where you also need the canvas or denim to make burnished edges after you sandpaper them and wet the edges with water - old school style. Rub away to your heart's content. Friction is the key. Again, this is the simplest and most basic way and can yield great result. If it's the "best" way is up for discussion - again, elsewhere on this forum.

While there always will be an endless discussion about pricking irons and stitching wheels, the good and bad, the need or no need and how to use them and so on, one universal fact is that it's a huge strain on your hard earned money. The more expensive stuff like Dixon and VB is something you should end with - if deemed necessary and not something you should start with. Even the cheaper stuff (the cheap is by no means meant as something of poor quality - Seiwa, Craft sha and several of ebays pricking irons are very cost effective and still of great quality) quickly add up cost wise, if you're gonna collect all the different sizes and shapes.
I also want to point out that many traditional and professional leather artisans don't use pricking irons to punch through the leather (while Japanese style stitching irons and Tandy's are made for this, Dixons and VB is not - even if many do it anyways - but that debate is also ongoing elsewhere on this forum...) and still only mark the leather and then use an awl to make every stitch individually - old school style!
A great example is several of the artisans working for Hermés or Ettinger or the artisans of Swainy Brigg, not to forget all the great saddle makers on this forum.
While I, myself, do use all kinds of pricking irons for different kind of projects - I also use the one-stitch-at-the-time-with-only-a-awl method from time to time, especially on personal projects.
Partly to prove to myself that I still have the basic skill - I am of the belief that this is a bit like walking and running, no point to do the latter if one can't do the former.
Partly because it does greatly to improve your stitching skill overall and speed to do saddle stitching. Do believe me on this one.

The cheapest option (instead of using a real pricking iron or wheel) is to use your scratch awl and a ruler to mark where every stitch is going to be. A bit tiresome, though.
A budget version and about in general four times as quick is to use an ordinary fork of suitable size. It's cheap, easy to find in different sizes, easily bends to a bit bigger size or/and to make a two or three prong version. The two prong fork version is also very usable instead of a creaser to mark out the stitch line from the edge (that's why I recommended a pair of forks).

Knife - well, you do need to cut the leather and thread with something.

Lint free towel to wipe the goods, tools and hands clean from time to time - without leaving a trace of small cotton bits and thread everywhere. Also trust me on this one, especially when you work with natural colored veg tan leather.

Paper, pencil and ruler again - you do need to make patterns for your goods, don't you? If you ever manage to "freestyle" the cutting of leather for all your projects, I will throw all my equipment away and start a new career! Hands down.

The pictures show some wallets I made in a basic and simple way a few years back. Hand cut from a paper pattern. I only marked the leather lightly where the stitches were going to be and then, using an awl - I made every single hole, one by one. However, I didn't do this the western traditional way or the "Al Stohlman" way, rather I kind of pre stabbed each hole like the last picture is showing, before I started to sew. This is for me a much quicker way. The common argument from the traditional minded is that the holes are pressed together again if you pre stab the holes and therefore there is a need to open them up again when stitching. In my experience this only gets to be a problem in any way, when the stitching is either less than 2mm-2.5mm between the holes or the leather thickness altogether get to be greater than 9mm-10mm. I doubt that anyone would be able to distinguish that the holes have been done this way instead of the more traditional - one stab, one stitch, one stab, one stitch - method.

Holding the awl this way gives much control in keeping the angle consistent through the whole process. You can angle it western style, European style or Japanese style with only the slightest turn of your wrist - for free!

Another thing I want to point out is the piece of natural veg tan leather I keep underneath the leather goods as I'm stabbing the stitching holes. The reason for this is that the "pounding board" or rubber square (similar to Tandy's) is too soft, so the sharp awl sinks too far through the leather. Not only does this slow down the process, the awl gets easily stuck in the leather and will need the use of both hands to pull out to prevent cutting up the hole (if your diamond awl doesn't cut like an knife, it's dull) and ruining your project.
The cutting mat in the bottom, under everything, is too hard for the tip of the awl and would quickly break the tip with the force from using a stabbing motion.
But, the veg tan leather (a piece of natural veg tan leather that's been dried out on an radiator over a night) has proven to give the right resistance so the awl stops after it just gone through the leather a few mm, without dulling or breaking the tip in any noticeable way, even after extensive use. This is also the reason why I have not included these mats on the basic list.

The edges are first sandpapered from 400 grit and then 600 grit, dyed with spirit based dye, wet with water and burnished with a piece of canvas. Sanded with the 1000 grit and the dyed again, repeated a few times until satisfied, rubbed with some beeswax that been warmed up in my hand until soft and polished with lint free cloth.

The leather is 2mm veg tan. The thread is flat polymer resin thread, also known as polyester thread, and in leather work circles known as an artificial Sinew thread. Stitching is saddle stitching, 4 mm apart. I used a thin awl, not wider than 2mm at its widest point.

The line along the stitching and the edge is not done with any expensive electrical tool, but rather a cheap creasing iron that has been heated over a gas stove (don't use candles to heat your iron as the give away smoke that will transfer to the leather and discolor it, even black leather. It will make the leather look wet in places permanent).
While not included in my list, however, I didn't feel like making a new leather item just for this post, so I used some old pictures and this wallets happened to have a decorative fancy line. At least it shows what difference small details can make.

Also the leather gasket around the snap is cut out with a hole punch, punches are only necessary if you're having snaps and such. Are you going to do card billfold wallets (easily one of the most common and popular beginner projects) there is no need for this.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. Hopefully there are some informative and helpful tips though! A final note, it's easy to think if you fail with a leather project, that it will be easier or better if you just get more/better/other/more expensive tools/materials/equipment/machinery. Lots of novices and professionals make this mistake and end up with a truck full of unused stuff. Better to save your money and just practice.

Remember; Sometimes when you fail, it's not because you've done something wrong, but because you haven't done it enough.

Nothing beats practice.

Good Luck!

Edited January 17, 2016 by ConradPark

[TinkerTailor]

You forgot band-aids.

[ConradPark]

[makiba]

WOW!!!!! ConradPark - Thank you so much!!! I've read through your post a number of times and the details, the things I wouldn't have thought to ask are just amazing. (I was wondering about forks!) The photos as well - that kind of beautiful stitching will be life goals for me :-D

Greatly appreciate you taking the time. I'll come back to your notes often over the coming months and years!

Thanks everyone for the amazing tips! Cheers to you all! Such a great community here!