Stitching

[tsunkasapa]

  On 2/21/2022 at 9:48 PM, Tugadude said:

If you haven't yet, make sure to tap those stitches down with a smooth-faced hammer.  That will help close up the holes a bit and flatten the thread.  I think it will make them look a little better.

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I think a thicker thread will help as well. But for now, it's looking good.

[Hardrada]

Add to your immediate watch list:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQK8R0oYT8o

[GatoGordo]

  On 2/21/2022 at 8:29 PM, Selvune said:

Well, I believe I have the stitching now going in the correct direction.  Not the prettiest, but the right direction...I hope.  When I say left versus right, it was the side in the stitching pony, diamonds facing away and up from me.  I started stitching away from me and stitched towards my body.  Am I reading the directly correctly now?  They go up on the right side and down on the left side.

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That is a big improvement in a short time.

[Spyros]

^ yeah that's about as good as most people need.   

I mean, you can still  engage in a "who's stitching is most slanted" competition if you want, but to me that's a futile cause.  Actual users and customers, outside of leatherworking forums, don't photograph their bags with macro lenses and then blow them up on computer screens to check the stitching.  Only we do that 

Edited February 22, 2022 by Spyros

[Selvune]

  On 2/21/2022 at 9:48 PM, Tugadude said:

If you haven't yet, make sure to tap those stitches down with a smooth-faced hammer.  That will help close up the holes a bit and flatten the thread.  I think it will make them look a little better.

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Do I need a cobblers hammer or will the flat side of a ball peenhammer work or my rawhide mallet?

  On 2/22/2022 at 1:14 AM, GatoGordo said:

That is a big improvement in a short time.

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Ty

Edited February 22, 2022 by Selvune

[Spyros]

 

  On 2/21/2022 at 10:11 PM, Hardrada said:

Add to your immediate watch list:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQK8R0oYT8o

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So I'm gonna go ahead and be the heretic in the room and I will say that I disagree with all those videos, and pretty much everything else I've seen on youtube  

Maybe they are a start for beginners?  Maybe. But I think those steps they describe are unnecessarily complicated and slow, for a couple of reasons:

First, I think that using a stitching pony or a clam is a bad idea.  I think the clam was a necessity when people were using awls, but most people use chisels these days.   So what happens with the pony or clam is, if you notice in all those videos, those guys are always demonstrating with a nice, small and flat piece of leather.  Perfect for clamping.  But what about when you have a whole bag or a difficult stitch in a gusset, or some 3 dimensional object that you can't possibly mount on a pony without damaging it?  You will sooner or later find yourself in a situation where you have to stitch without a pony, and then if you try to follow all those steps in the video you will realise that you need 3 hands to do it, and then you're stuck.  Nobody needs a pony, it just adds unnecessary steps.  Maybe as a beginner they do, until they get the hang of stitching, but after that I think people are better off ditching it entirely and teach themselves to stitch without.

Second, I think it's a bad idea to start a stitching from the left needle.   Particularly when you've made the holes with chisels, which most of us do.  The reason is that we typically punch the leather from the skin side (the "good" side) and that makes the holes on that side much better formed and visible and easier to pass a needle through.  So that's the side you want to first pass your needle through, it is much much easier, and that is the right hand side on the video.  The exit holes on the other side are practically invisible most of the time. And what he does to overcome this is first pass the right needle to open up the hole so he can actually see it from the left, and then starts the stitching from the left.  That's another unnecessary step (which requires 3 hands if you don't use a pony)

Then I don't know why you have to make a cross or cast the thread while you're passing the needle from the holes.  What these steps do can much more easily be achieved afterwards, by simply arranging your hands so that threads can cross or not cross each other as they need to.

Personally I've stopped doing all those things on those videos and I reversed engineered my stitching down to the bare essentials.  I never use a pony or a clam, I don't start stitching from the faraway hole to come towards me ( I do the opposite), I don't cross the needles or cast the thread, and I don't first widen the hole with the right needle so I can see it from the left, I just start each stitch with the right hand needle first .  All those things combined make it way faster and easier.

You're probably thinking my stitching looks crap now LOL

Well, this is the result that I typically get.  Front:

Back:

If that is not good enough, then ok, it's not good enough. 

But that's how I do it.  And when I was doing it as described in those videos I was getting pretty much the same result anyway, because effectively I'm doing the same thing, but without all those steps and ponies.

I think what all those videos do is convey methods and wisdom that have been passed down from generation to generation, but I think that wisdom hails from a time where chisels didn't exist, and you needed something to hold your work while you're dealing with the awl and the needles.  With the high quality chisels that we have these days I think there are simpler and faster ways to stitch.

Edited February 22, 2022 by Spyros

[Spyros]

  On 2/22/2022 at 3:25 AM, Selvune said:

Do I need a cobblers hammer or will the flat side of a ball peenhammer work or my rawhide mallet?

Ty

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Any hammer will do, just make sure it doesn't have any indentations on the surface or it might leave marks on the leather.  If it has, sand the flat surface until flat and shiny.

[jrdunn]

  On 2/22/2022 at 5:12 AM, Spyros said:

So I'm gonna go ahead and be the heretic in the room and I will say that I disagree with all those videos, and pretty much everything else I've seen on youtube  

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YOU HERETIC!  (I'm not exactly sure what that word means.)  OBTW, your stitching looks great!  I'm more "results oriented" myself.  Results is what you got.  JM2C

[johnnydb]

Chasing better hand stitching is a lifetime affair for me.  

Of course we want better always to the point that our stitches look like a machine did them...

But people aren't machines.  

And those tiny flaws are what create the hand made look.  If course you can't bungle it...but a good job of hand stitching adds value to a product.  It doesn't detract even if you feel like your stitching needs improvement.  

 

I think that you are doing great.  Keep it up.  Keep the angles and order the same every time and they will look great.  I just had a frustrating time with a baseball stitch myself...But it did ok in the end.  

Wait until you start doing the stitching that you use as part of the adornment.  Then you will get really frustrated...I know I do.  Just relax and have fun.  

[TomE]

In defense of using an awl and stitching horse, I don't see a way to punch through 2-3 layers of 9 oz veg tan without leaving an unsightly hole.  I doubt it's faster to prepunch the holes since most of the time is spent pulling up the stitches and (re)positioning the work.  I'd also say that Stohlman's  books on sewing and case making are arguably better than most instructional videos.

Edited February 22, 2022 by TomE