Need Advice: Leather for Hybrid Sporran - hand sewing, etc.

[kiltedrennie]

Hi,

I've made a couple of sporrans with non-traditional materials. The latest one is "okay", but I want to improve on it. It's tweed and duck canvas (pics below). Although the duck canvas worked pretty well for the gusset, I think it would look, feel, and function better if I use leather. The panels can still be made from layers of duck canvas and tweed.

I've never worked with leather. I understand a chisel tipped needle is used for machine sewing leather, but I prefer to sew by hand. Is the leather typically used for the gusset something I can hand sew? Are there chisel shaped needles for hand sewing leather or is an awl and blunt round-nose needle (like a x-stitch needle?) typically used?

Thanks

[artificer]

When hand sewing leather you have two primary choices, a sewing awl tool that makes a lock stitch,

OR

the much stronger two-needle saddle stitch. This can be accomplished with either harness needles or a triangular profile Glover's Needle.

The benefit of the (very sharp) glover's needle is that you don't need to pre-punch your holes, but you WILL end up stabbing yourself eventually.

Glover's Needles

ith:

[kiltedrennie]

Thanks!

The two-needle saddle stitch appears to have a "cleaner" look to it.

I think I may have stumbled into another hobby I don't have time for :-)

[MNlad]

The benefit of the (very sharp) glover's needle is that you don't need to pre-punch your holes, but you WILL end up stabbing yourself eventually.

BTDT—Got the puncture marks to prove it.

If you do much of this, you'll also eventually want a stitching pony. A carpenter's vice also works well. It holds your work in place while you stitch.

If you are using thin leather in addition to the cloth, you can sew it on a sturdy machine, but you will need leather needles. They cut the holes in the leather rather than trying to punch through like a cloth needle. If they're the appropriate size, this lets the thread feed through much easier.

Good luck.

[kiltedrennie]

I found a video of someone using an old Singer machine with chisel tipped needles. I suspect a "modern" sewing machine, even my wife's 35 year old Kenmore, might not be up to the task for leather thick enough for the gusset. I like the idea of hand sewing them anyway.

A stitching pony sounds very useful. Maybe I'll avoid sticking myself as much as I already do with a simple needle and upholstery thread. Glover's needles look pretty wicked.

I also watched a video explaining saddle stitching. Do you cut a stitching groove? With the relatively thin leather for a gusset, it looks like it would remove too much material.

Thanks again for the advice.

[Emmet]

Cutting a groove for stitching is generally only done in places where its likely the stitches will take a bit of a beating. So it would be unnecessary inside a sporran or bag gusset. If you're worried about the stitches you can make a crease in the leather which will tighten the fibres and sew along that but more then likely this will be over kill.