Sewing external bag seams?

[LeatherinCornwall]

14 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

The softness of that leather as you say makes it a little hard to keep straight. I have for soft leather edges a flat edge guide about an inch long that helps the leather edge not move in as it does on the standard roller style guides. If you decide to make one tilt the back end about 1 degree inward as this will make the long straps stay straight and almost not need to be held. Following a straight line on soft leather like this will often lead to some over stretching of the work and look wobbly when finished.The foot work combo is not the best in my opinion and I think you would be better with a left foot in use instead. This will make the job hold more stable and will not affect your visibility that much if at all. Where you have welded in the back of your needle plate means that you have reduced the possible length of your stitches and you could also easily cause damage if you mistakenly open the stitch length a little too far as you go. I would suggest the flat needle plate may be worth a try for now if you have one. You may be able to get a set of narrow dog feet and needle plate as I did in the post I mentioned above or if you want to wait for a few weeks I have a friend working on making a matching set for the Cowboy 4500 along the same line over here. I should have some to trial pretty soon and I will post the results here on LW when that is done. BTW the bag work looks promising and if your machine is set up right I would say the bag should easily be made in a day on a one off basis as long as you have all of your patterns sorted well. This could be half that time frame if you were doing 5 at a time with minimal variations. I don't see where any hand stitching would be needed except perhaps the handle and that can be designed to work for a machine as well.

Hey, thanks for the insight.  Yeah, I should have set the stitch length to full, before measuring for that cutout, I'll check and readjust later today. Head up my keester at times. Wow, if I could knock these out in  a day, that would potentially be profitable. First one took like 30 hours with all hand stitching, the last one like 16-18 with partial hand work.   I've got the advantage of using Autocad for pattern design, my day job requires the skill already for building design, so on that end, designing new projects is easy and quick.  I will look into a left foot setup, would like to see what you come up with on your end.  I don't care much for the flat plate without a feed dog, the stitching thus far I've found to be unpredictable in length at times.  But it's all still new to me, maybe that can be sorted out.

Is there a pic of a flat edge guide on here somewhere? Interested...

Edited February 3, 2020 by LeatherinCornwall

[RockyAussie]

Different machine but this pic shows another flat edge guide I made that I can angle inward etc. This keeps a little inward pressure with a strap and it pretty much feeds itself through with minimal help.

[RockyAussie]

If you replace the roller and put in a bit of 3/4" angle bolted on you would have something similar to guide above.

If you want to cut out the see-saw as you stitch you need to get a narrow throated needle plate and thinner feed dog to match as shown below. This makes freehand way way easier and predictable including the straighter better tension look on the underside.

Soft leather also is then more real and note again I am using just a standard left foot.

[LeatherinCornwall]

At $375 plus shipping that 4-piece set is a bit out of my reach at the moment for occasional use.  Though I may make a set from standard cheaper parts.  Amazing what one can do with  a mig welder and a right angle grinder.

My new roller guide like yours above hasn't shipped yet, being Chinese New Year plus Corona delay...

Edited February 4, 2020 by LeatherinCornwall

[MoMatt]

Harry Rogers has a video on youtube sewing a bag with a machine.  Diresta also has one sewing a tool bag.  If you haven't seen them I think you might enjoy watching them.

[RockyAussie]

1 hour ago, LeatherinCornwall said:

At $375 plus shipping that 4-piece set is a bit out of my reach at the moment for occasional use.  Though I may make a set from standard cheaper parts.  Amazing what one can do with  a mig welder and a right angle grinder.

My new roller guide like yours above hasn't shipped yet, being Chinese New Year plus Corona delay...

Yeah the ones we are working on should be about 1/2 that for the dog foot and needle plate set.  I should have some samples and and pictures pretty soon now.

[Tulsa]

I’m a long time lurker and haven’t posted here before.   If I understand what you are looking for, then Maybe....

Maybe the solution is a different needle?  You could get that hand-stitched look with the right needle tip.  
As an example, I’ve attached a technical marketing bulletin from Groz-Beckert, a needle manufacturer.  Perhaps a different needle would get your intended result.  I have no idea if these are available to fit any particular machine.  I enjoy the technical aspect of sewing and leather craft, maybe more than the creation part of it.   Or maybe I’m just stupid.  Hope this helps. 
 

Randy in Tulsa

 

EDIT: Going through this thread again, now I’m not sure this is what you are asking.  Back under my rock.  
 

BRO_SMN_15_EN_01_20130703_150.pdf

Edited February 4, 2020 by Tulsa

[RockyAussie]

Welcome @Tulsa and thanks for your input. Anybody offering advise to help in any way on LW should never ever be considered stupid. The fact that you're here looking says you gettin smarter.

[LeatherinCornwall]

Tulsa, wow interesting. Who would've thought a needle makes THAT much difference?

On the example videos, yeah  watched the one, it's a sew and flip inside out type. The Diresta one is new to me, looks like what I need, thanks.

Aha watched it, that's exactly how I made the wife's overnight bag, with the overlapped riveted piece at the ends of the opening.  Works great.  I guess the edge sewing issue is just a training and practice thing.

 

Edited February 4, 2020 by LeatherinCornwall

[LeatherinCornwall]

 

11 hours ago, Tulsa said:

I’m a long time lurker and haven’t posted here before.   If I understand what you are looking for, then Maybe....

Maybe the solution is a different needle?  You could get that hand-stitched look with the right needle tip.  
As an example, I’ve attached a technical marketing bulletin from Groz-Beckert, a needle manufacturer.  Perhaps a different needle would get your intended result.  I have no idea if these are available to fit any particular machine.  I enjoy the technical aspect of sewing and leather craft, maybe more than the creation part of it.   Or maybe I’m just stupid.  Hope this helps. 
 

Randy in Tulsa

 

EDIT: Going through this thread again, now I’m not sure this is what you are asking.  Back under my rock.  
 

BRO_SMN_15_EN_01_20130703_150.pdf

Here's the similar product sheet for Schmetz needles...which is what I have. Mine are old stock and don't indicate beyond 794, which they are, i.e.  DI, S. etc. They are NOS from 1998, so I have no clue which they are. But the stitches I am getting are nice and straight, so I guess they're what I wanted if I can just sew in a straight line :-) 

leather-needles.pdf

Edited February 4, 2020 by LeatherinCornwall