Working with Saffiano Leather

[BettyJ]

2 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

It looks like a difficult leather to work with. The brown one to me shows signs of overskiving and I would say if you can try the saffiano without any skive and as well change to a point neddle and not a leatherpoint as that will stop the plasticy finish from opening out as much. Also you would need to tighten your top tension maybe 2 or 3 turns and your bobbin tension maybe a 1/2 turn as well. Once stitched....warm up with a heat gun up and down the seam until the leather is quite warm and towards hot then press around to get the shaping sitting as you want. I suggest to practice with some scrap first and try and work out how far you can cut back on your seam allowance and tap down. The back seam in a court shoe has only 2mm or less and is then pressed flat after stitching. A good shoe does still show next to no stitching at this seam. Experiment and have fun learning. Brian

Hi Brian!

Thanks so much for the advice, really appreciate it! Yes, it's been a bit of a tricky leather to get any kind of nice result with.

It's nice to meet another Aussie on here too. I'm from Perth but currently living in Singapore.

Yeah I think I went a bit nuts with the skiving on the brown leather. I'll knock it back a little on the next one. I want to make another but with piping. I'm just going to wait for my feet to arrive and then have at it.

Thanks for the stitching advice, I'll go fix the tension on my machine once I'm off the computer. Still getting the hang of it as it's been so long since I've used it. I don't know that I have a point needle, I'll have to go look. 

Oh the heat moulding sounds like a great idea and I don't know why I didn't think to cut down and flatten the seams. I've made ballet flat shoes before and we did this with a tiny seam and then glued it down. Doh!

Thanks and I will do. I've been at this now for about two weeks. It's driving me a bit mad but I know that I'll get there in the end. You don't learn without making mistakes and these last two weeks, well, let's say I've re-learned a lot of stuff I should have remembered. Ah well.

Thanks again, I'll let you know how I go.

[chuckgaudette]

I've made some bags with Saffiano and it is hard to work with. I can be a real pain to get through the sewing machine. 

[BettyJ]

7 hours ago, chuckgaudette said:

I've made some bags with Saffiano and it is hard to work with. I can be a real pain to get through the sewing machine. 

Hi Chuckguadette

It has been a bit challenging to get through the machine. It's so stiff, it's like sewing cardboard. ☹️

[BettyJ]

Success! Thanks so much for the advice Brian! The smaller seam worked better, I changed to a point needle and tightened up my tension in both my bobbin and on my dial. After I'd stitched it, I blasted it with my hairdryer to help mould it. Results are below. I think this is the best I'm going to get so I'm going to practice a bit more before attempting the real thing. Feeling a bit more confident now.

 

[RockyAussie]

WOW.... now that's looking a whole lot better to me...congratulations.

P.S. keep an eye out on @motocouture work. If my rememberer is working right she is from over that side of OZ as well...originally. Cheers Brian

[motocouture]

On 11/25/2017 at 0:50 AM, RockyAussie said:

WOW.... now that's looking a whole lot better to me...congratulations.

P.S. keep an eye out on @motocouture work. If my rememberer is working right she is from over that side of OZ as well...originally. Cheers Brian

Agreed on looking better - might have to use some of those tips myself next time I do a rounded corner!

@RockyAussie your rememberer isn’t broken yet  I’m originally from Albany, WA, then somehow ended up in Pennsylvania with snow and no beaches 

[BettyJ]

On 11/25/2017 at 1:50 PM, RockyAussie said:

WOW.... now that's looking a whole lot better to me...congratulations.

P.S. keep an eye out on @motocouture work. If my rememberer is working right she is from over that side of OZ as well...originally. Cheers Brian

Thanks! I'm quite chuffed with it.   Thanks for the tips, really helped. The guys I'm working with were surprised as they had experienced the same issues and had tried skiving the daylights out of it and that just didn't work.

On 11/26/2017 at 11:50 PM, motocouture said:

Agreed on looking better - might have to use some of those tips myself next time I do a rounded corner!

@RockyAussie your rememberer isn’t broken yet  I’m originally from Albany, WA, then somehow ended up in Pennsylvania with snow and no beaches 

Hi @motocouture! Albany! Wow, I haven't been down there in years! Been a while since I've lived in Oz too. London for ten years now a side stop in Singapore for who knows how long. I don't know how someone who hates the humidity as much as I do landed up here! hahahaha! 

[RockyAussie]

Just curious ....have you checked out the Chek Hong tannery. We get a lot of skins sent to us from over there but I have never been there myself. Another really good tannery is Heng Long Leather and we get some skins sent from there as well. Both do a beautiful job of tanning Croc and delve into product making as well I believe.

Regards Brian

[BettyJ]

On 11/29/2017 at 6:22 PM, RockyAussie said:

Just curious ....have you checked out the Chek Hong tannery. We get a lot of skins sent to us from over there but I have never been there myself. Another really good tannery is Heng Long Leather and we get some skins sent from there as well. Both do a beautiful job of tanning Croc and delve into product making as well I believe.

Regards Brian

I haven't actually. Thanks for the heads up.  I've not worked with exotics.

I finished the pouch. I'm not 100% thrilled with it and I'm sure I can do better in future. Those small corners were really tricky, even with the piping foot.

[RockyAussie]

That's not so bad.....a little bit of strategic padding and stiffener before lining and I'd say you'd have it about right. Brian