Members Sheilajeanne Posted July 19, 2017 Members Report Posted July 19, 2017 (edited) My mom passed away in November. Last week, I was at her place, cleaning out her possessions to prepare it for the new owners of her house. I found a Simplicity Denim Star sewing machine, which looks like it's barely been used. She didn't sew much, but she was a very avid knitter, so the machine was just gathering dust in the garage. Tonight, I had a look at the instruction book. Hmm...it says it will sew light to medium weight leather with a 12/80 needle, and heavy leather with a 16/100 or 18/110 needle. It also has another very useful feature - it converts to free-arm sewing for doing sleeves and other hard-to-get-at areas. After reading about non-industrial sewing machines on this forum, I am quite skeptical of its claims re. sewing leather, but we shall see, we shall see... [rubs hands together] This was NOT something I was expecting when I brought it home. I knew it would probably do lightweight leather, but didn't expect anything more than that! It also does all sorts of really fancy stitches, and will even sew on buttons! No, not just sew buttonholes, but attach the buttons themselves! Edited July 19, 2017 by Sheilajeanne Quote
Members Constabulary Posted July 19, 2017 Members Report Posted July 19, 2017 This "heavy" leather sewing thing with plastic and other domestic machines will probably never disappear, right? What did the manual say how thick heavy leather is? A "light leather" needle is 100 - 120 metric the "medium leather" needle is approx 140 - 160 metric and "heavier leather" is approx 160 - 180 metric the "heavy leather" needle is 200 and above I´d say. But it depends.... Being skeptical is good! Sell the machine on ebay for a few bucks or keep it for some garment repairs and then start again with this thread: The Type Of Sewing Machine You Need To Sew Leather or Quote ~ Keep "OLD CAST IRON" alive - it´s worth it ~ Machines in use: - Singer 111G156 - Singer 307G2 - Singer 29K71 - Singer 212G141 - Singer 45D91 - Singer 132K6 - Singer 108W20 - Singer 51WSV2 - Singer 143W2
Members Sheilajeanne Posted July 19, 2017 Author Members Report Posted July 19, 2017 Constabulary, I took it home primarily to do domestic sewing repairs. My current machine doesn't even have a 'reverse' feature on it, so this is a HUGE step up for me! No, it doesn't give the thickness of leather it can handle. I'm going to play around with it, anyway. Probably will work for wallets and chequebooks. For the heavier stuff, I actually kind of enjoy saddle stitching. I like it muchmuchmuch better than double lacing!! Quote
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