Stitching Not Lining Up At Corners

[Saxnn]

OK so I made a pattern, cut it out and went to wailing on it with my Seiwa chisel, got to the end where I make a right turn and the last hole doesn't quite make it to my groove...............finished it out because it was just a practice piece, but man it's ugly!!!

Do you just have to measure it out every time before you make your grooves? I'm sure that's it lol but it's late at night and I'm dead tired and not thinking clearly!

Edited March 17, 2016 by Saxnn

[grmnsplx]

Got a pic?

[Martyn]

Do you just have to measure it out every time before you make your grooves?

Ideally, yes, but it doesnt always work out nicely.

You can see whether or not you'll need to make adjustments by rolling your chisel down your stitch line, end over end, like using dividers. You can see where the last hole in a run will fall and make adjustments accordingly.

Once you know you will need to make an adjustment, as you are making your row of holes Instead of putting one prong of the chisel in the last hole you just made for perfect spacing, just 'fudge it'. By that I mean you abandon your last hole as a point of reference and set the gap manually. Make the gap slightly bigger or smaller - only very slightly. Do this two or three times on a run and you can make the last hole nail it into the corner and you wont notice that two or three stitches in the run are a hair too long or too short.

Also, I like to use a round hole in corners, so stop one stitch short of the corner with your chisel and make the corner hole with a scratch awl. This helps with spacing too. Using the round corner hole method, you rarely need to make any adjustments to stitch length and it looks so much better.

Nigel Armitage shows the round corner hole method here...

https://youtu.be/TGuiha5S2oE?t=137

Edited March 17, 2016 by Martyn

[Tugadude]

Martyn nailed it. I would only add that any time you are going to have uneven stitch length or spacing, plan it out as Martyn described. Don't get to the corner and go " Oh, s..."! Have a plan. I even try to arrange for backstitching to occur in unobvious places. Most leather items have a focal point that folks tend to notice first or that draw attention most often. Make sure those locations look their best.

[billybopp]

I start marking / punching my holes from the corners and work toward the center. When there is about enough space left for two or three tool-widths, and then make light impressions with the tool to see how many more / less will be needed to complete the line and then space out the last holes after I have an idea of what's needed. I'd like to tell you that I get really scientific about spacing those last holes, but I really just eyeball it with good success. This way your 'different length stitches' will be spread out over a few stitches and less noticeable.

Bill

[Matt T]

Here's one way I figured out how to do it:

http://lekoza.com/kb/stitch_alignment

[uberyk]

I am far from an expert as I've only been doing this as a hobby for a few months now.

But I like to start from the center and work my way out in both directions with the chisel/pricking iron.

This way if you have a length that doesn't evenly match the chisel spacing, you can have the same amount of "unevenness" on each side.

That's what I'd do for more forward facing, centered parts.

But as tuga said, if you have a length of stitch where one side will be less visible or covered by something, I would just start evenly from the more prominent end.