Repair this Saddle

[chocolateducttape]

A friend of mine is off to Pony Club Rally in a week and a half and needs a quick repair job on her saddle. Unfortunately there are no professionals around here that can get it done by the time she needs it. So, since I've been messing around with leatherwork for the last year and a half, I was elected. (I did warn her that I have no idea what I'm doing and am more likely to mess it up than fix it properly, but she said as long as it was serviceable and Pony Club approved she didn't care what it looked like. The only reason she wants anything done about it in the first place is that the Horse Management judges at Rally Camp told her it was a potential "safety hazard," and if she was at actual Rally her team would get points taken off for it. But anyway. There's a picture of it attached.)

To actually do a good job of this, I'd probably have to take out the torn piece and replace it, but I don't have the time, the tools or the know-how to do that. So I'll have to do a patch job instead. Do you think if I take a little piece of leather to fold over the torn spot, do a really thorough job of skiving and dyeing, and use really small stitches, it'll look all right? Either way it isn't going to affect the functionality of the saddle, and she says it doesn't matter if I mess up, but I don't want it to look too horrible. Or if anyone has a better way to go about it please share.

[Don101]

i cant really tell what part of a saddle it is from the picture, but if you are going to patch it put the leather piece underneath so all you will see is the stitching on the top piece just an idea

[barra]

Ducttape. I was trained by an English saddler so lets see what we can come up with. Is it possible for you to take a couple of extra pics from different angles. What I would like to see is how the roll of leather is joined to the saddle at the gullet. That roll of leather (that is torn) is called the front facing and extends down the flap, across the gullet and down the other flap. I am after seeing how the panel (padding for the horse), which includes the front facing is attached to the top of the saddle.

Let me go fishing and i will see what other info I can find to assist you. Don't worry It is actually a fairly easy job and to return it into a safe/serviceable condition can easily be tackled by someone with basic leatherwork skills.

Barra

[chocolateducttape]

Thanks y'all!

Barra- upon closer examination, and from looking at the same spot on the opposite side, which is also torn but to a lesser extent, it looks like the facing (it has a word! yay) was cut almost to the stitching at the point where it meets the gullet. I guess to allow more movement without, theoretically, tearing the leather. That would kind of make sense design-wise. It's a Courbette Arosa close-contact saddle if that helps. Thank you so much! More pictures attached.

[barra]

http://www.berninausa.com/media/knowledgeb...ls0002_6f59.pdf

Sorry for the delay. Probably the best way to tackle this will be to butt the 2 torn edges together. I would probably do one big tack stitch about 1/8" either side of the tear just to hold it all together while you sew on a patch. There is no real way of making it look pretty.

Using the link above have a look at the pic called single binding (or something similar) If you are using thin leather you can bind it like the pic. If the leather is a bit thicker and firmer and will not fold over neatly with 4 layers then just have one layer of leather and fold it over the front facing so that ther is only one thickness either side. Once the 2 torn edges are butted up and tack stitched. carefully unpick about 1' of the flap. Slip the binding piece between the flap and the rolled facing and extend your patch 1" on the other side of the tear. Fold the patch over the rolled facing and stitch it back down. You will need to sew a couple of stitches on the flap past your unpicking to lock of the stitches and a couple of stitches BACK (toward) the flap to lock off the stitches on the other end of the patch. For the actual size of the patch, make it about 1" either side of the tear or maybe a little more. As for the width. If you are only going to fold it with one thickness either side then you can make it about 3" wide (to be safe). On the top of the saddle side it only needs to slip under the unpicked flap by say 1/2". The reason I say make it 3" wide is to allow for the fudge factor ( a scientifically recognised saddlers term). Do not try and make the width the exact size you want it to be finihed. You can trim off the excess later with either an edge tool that is big enough to allow for the thickness of the leather or just carefully use a sharp knife. If using a knife I would place something underneath the leather to be trimmed and the saddle to avoid slipping and having an unwanted slashed saddle.

I hope this all make sense.

Barra

[chocolateducttape]

Thank you so much! I got it done; if nothing else, the color matches and it'll hold it together to prevent further tearing. So thanks for the help!

Ashley