Help Applying Saddle Stitching to Tool Bag Design

[OrthodoxMason]

1 hour ago, johnv474 said:

Once you have everything in place (holes made, needles threaded, leather in clam or stitching pony), and with some practice, it is possible to stitch 8 stitches per minute or so.  If you are using 6spi chisels this works out to about 1.25 inches per minute.

Certainly that is not the fastest out there, but it is certainly not the slowest (some people stitch 2 stitches per minute).

In anything hand-sewn, the sewing portion will take the lions share of the project-making time, so careful planning and preparation--and plenty of time refining your sewing technique--will pay off big dividends in time savings.

Pardon my potential ignorance, but are the folds of leather that I am working on considerably different than a typical lapping of two separate pieces of leather? The hardest aspect of the stitching for me now are the folded edges. Doubling over the edges in a pleasing and efficient manner has been quite a challenge for me. In your experience, do you believe that stitching those connections ought to be similar to a more typical connection? Would you happen to have any advice on how to approach such an aspect?

[Tugadude]

You are right in that the folded tops of the pouches make things more difficult or at least slower.  I'd be tempted to create holes in what is the outer aspect of the rolled edge and the glue it or tape it down with double-sided tape and then use an awl to go through the existing holes and through the second, unpunched layer.  Seems to me a reasonable way to approach it.  Once you get things sorted out you will likely amaze yourself with how fast you can stitch.  

Edited July 28, 2017 by Tugadude

[OrthodoxMason]

Pardon a six month space of silence, but I just wanted to thank everyone in this thread that was kind enough to chime in with their ideas and recommendations. Truly, having such input has been a helpful guide. I'll try and compose an progress update post soon. My main line of work is construction and design, so this project often has to take a backseat. Moving slowly is still moving. I'm aiming to begin selling these tool bags alongside other leather goods in late spring. In my update post I'll cover more of that in depth, but I wanted to reach out to you guys first because I welcome your continued input. Thanks again for taking the time out of your day to dialogue with me. Hopefully, I can contribute and give by to this forum.

Best regards,

Patrick

P.S. Dun, I have implemented your curved tab suggestion to great effect and am excited to show it to you. Thanks again!

[motocouture]

Really impressive work! My hubby used to do construction and fine finish carpentry, so I showed him your bags and he was also very impressed! He pulled out his tool belt, made by Occidental Leather, and suggested (assuming you haven’t already : ) researching their website for price points etc. A couple of photos below...

@nstarleather and @RockyAussie also have written some great posts on some of the business aspects of the leatherwork that might be handy (again, forgive me if you’ve already covered this ground). 

[Dun]

Glad to see you're still at it! I've been moving slowly as well with my stuff.

[OrthodoxMason]

Moto,

Many thanks for the kind words! I have indeed been spending quite a lot of time looking over Occidental Leather's price points. I discuss this a bit more in my update post that I just published here on the forum. Their prices are helpful comparisons, but I think that ultimately I am going to have to commit to a substantially higher price point than them. They are offering mass produced gear, and truly they strike a lovely balance of quality and cost savings. I'm interested in making the best quality bag, and as such am faced with the reality of charging a more top shelf rate. Now, who knows if anyone is keen to buy such a bag? At any rate, that is decidedly more verbage than you bargained for. Thanks for the recommendations to the business post, I shall try to read over them later today!

On 1/6/2018 at 2:34 PM, Dun said:

Glad to see you're still at it! I've been moving slowly as well with my stuff.

Indeed, slow but certainly onwards. The update post that I mentioned has been posted!