Joining leather panels.

[toxo]

I will get the proper stuff dog but I'm itching to get on. It's only the glue on the needle I'm concerned with. If you look at the French seam above, the the two stitch lines are 5mm from the center I'll cut the tape around 12mm/15mm and those stitch lines will go through it so it can't move and then over that I'll be contact glueing some 0.7mm pigskin over the whole panel. It might turn out that it'll look ok if I leave the side stitches until after glueing the lining and then stitch through the lot in which case there's no need for extra reinforcing. Even the proper tape has to have some glue along the center to hold it in place for stitching. 

I've never done anything like this before and I'm loving the experimenting and the designing. It's going to be a gift so I'm not worried about the cuz asking for her money back. 

[philippe]

Not sure if this will help you or not, but when I'm joining panels and need strength, I do a method that is is similar to a French seam. It leaves the panels sewn together on top of one another. It can be a little bulky if you don't skive the edges, but depending on the look you're going for its not unacceptable either. Here's a couple pics of an example I just did to show you. This may have already been mentioned. I noticed above in your pictures you did this, but another way to reduce the bulk is putting a groove in where you fold the seam. I know skiving it all manually would not be pleasant but a deep groove shouldn't be that big of a deal. 

Edited January 3, 2020 by philippe
update

[toxo]

Interesting! It reduces the bulk by the bump caused by the second fold. So the first stitch goes through two layers and the top stitch goes through all three?

What leather is the black one? I have a light blue skin like that. It's floppy and heavy, I was told it was goatskin.

[philippe]

11 minutes ago, toxo said:

Interesting! It reduces the bulk by the bump caused by the second fold. So the first stitch goes through two layers and the top stitch goes through all three?

What leather is the black one? I have a light blue skin like that. It's floppy and heavy, I was told it was goatskin.

Yes the first stitch joins the panels, the second goes through all three and subsequently hides the first stitch. The black leather is just a pebble grain cowhide, the red is calf. It was just random scrap. You may have goat, but generally speaking Goat isn't very heavy. Its usually 4oz or or less. That's not a rule, just what i've normally seen.