My First Sporran

[Tobus]

I would have recommended a glover's needle, but for the fact that every time I pick one up I manage to drive it deep into my hand (though it does go through many leathers quite nicely as well )

I steer clear of them now.

ith:

I almost exclusively use glover's needles for hand-stitching. I get a neater stitch, without stretching the holes out so much like I do with bigger needles. But yeah, the pointy end of the needle is cut more to the shape of a blade than a needle, so it bears some extra precaution.

I only do saddle-stitches (in and out from both sides, not lock-stitches), and a glover's needle has just the right shape to help fish the needle through the hole, to one side of the other thread that's already coming out of it. Once I get the tip through, I push the rear through while wearing a leather thimble on my thumb until I can grab the other (pointy) end with a small pair of pliers.

The only annoying thing about glover's needles is that the eye end is so thin and fragile, I sometimes end up snapping them off when trying to pull the needle through the hole - usually right as it's pulling the thread through. But they're really handy and easy to work with for my style of stitching, much more so than the larger needles. And IMHO the end result is a tidier stitch line and a tighter stitch (due to more friction in the holes), if that makes any sense.