Concealed Appliqué Stitch

[Bonecross]

I was re-reading Al Stohlman's 1977 book "The Art of Hand Sewing leather" and on pages 54/55 he describes a technique called "Concealed Appliqué Stitch", which he uses to mount horse heads on a saddle.

Has anyone tried this technique? Any other examples out there (which is quite vague in the book)?

I'd like to know more about how this works exactly for an upcoming project...

 

[Bob Blea]

I know I've seen a description of sewing a cantle binding on a saddle where the stitching is hidden.  I thought that was in the Art of Hand Sewing by Al Stohlman but I might be wrong about that.  It could have been in the saddle making series of books.  I can't remember now.

[Bonecross]

It seems like this technique is only mentioned once and then nothing! One of those lost techniques?

[Bonecross]

I re-read Al Stohlman's description of the technique until it made sense and decided to make a walkthrough for this thread with a small project

I have a project which involves small tooled dragons and I really do not want to have to pierce them with thread and ruin them...So what I want to do is use the Concealed Appliqué Stich. 

Here is a prototype:

 

First step is to grab a piece of 8oz leather and make rough lines for the dragon. Then take a piece of thinner leather (I used 2oz) to act as a "plug" and make it slightly smaller than the shape of the dragon carving:

 

We then flip our 8oz thick dragon over and carve the backside so that the plug fits into it (I used a  variety of edging tools):

 

Yaya it's fairly flush

 

Position the Dragon and plug over the leather that will be used as the background (that you will stitch to), and make thread holes to properly support the piece through both plug and background layers:

 

Use a needle to pass the thread through the holes in the plug. Leave 4-5 inches of thread ends. You can clean it up with a rubber band or something to make it manageable:

 

Now contact cement the plug into the hole your carved into the back of the piece:

 

 

Looking good after some flattening

 

Now I prepare it by applying shelf liner to the back then leave some weight on it to keep it flat overnight. Tomorrow I will continue with the tooling stage and finish trimming it all nice...

Edited June 14, 2016 by Bonecross

[Boriqua]

cant wait for the next installment!

[Bonecross]

I had not actually planned a second installment lol. Basically once you are done tooling and dyeing as usual, you stick the threads into the holes you punched into the background layer and tie a knot

That's it, finito! Concealed stitches!

Tip: You may want to add more stitch points than I showed... Depends on the project.

Here is another one I made today, after it's base coat of green dye. I plan to make many of these and pick the top 5 but for now I am playing with the technique 

 

Edited June 15, 2016 by Bonecross

[Boriqua]

aw man

I knew what was next but I wanted to see

If you get the chance try and shoot how you knotted it and what the final product looks like. I have had that book for a thousand or so years and understand it but never tried it so I am having fun living vicariously.

Alex

[Bonecross]

Ok here is the continuation then

So we have a pretty dragon and the background layer that was pre-awled earlier to match the thread locations of our plug.

 

We take a needle and pass the thread into the holes one by one. This is where leaving yourself lots of extra thread pays off! Start on one side and work your way to the opposite:
 

 

See how all the thread is properly aligned, this is what you are looking for. Try to avoid getting them crossed:

 

 

Now gently pull each pair of threads tight and tie a simple knot:

 

Oooo pretty dragon right? AND NO FRIGGIN STITCHES!!!

 

Now you can inlay this panel like you would normally to anything: a bag, piece of armor or even a Dragon saddle!

 

Note that I am actually going to undo the knots and cut a hole behind that stone (I forgot!). This is why I use simple knots, lets me adjust or undo them if required!

 

Edited June 16, 2016 by Bonecross

[TwinOaks]

Thank you for sharing the technique!

[Boriqua]

Thanks for putting up the rest of the pix!!! Looks good and I think all dragon saddles should be appropriately festooned with bling. Thanks for sharing! Now you have given me the itch to try it on something.

Alex