Working with Leather

I did a couple of leather jacket patterns this week in between freelancing at a Jean company and other work. So it's been a busy couple of weeks for me. Working with leather is different to fabric. Some leather garment manufacturers glue leather seams together and then topstich for decorative finish and then there are others that sew seams together with a special leather needle. The leather needle is a three sided needle that have knife-like edges on either side of the point, it looks something like a diamond. Instead of making holes like an ordinary sewing needle the leather needle cuts tiny holes as it stitches through the thicknesses of the leather pieces. The Leather needle can be used to sew suede, vinyl, synthetic leathers, etc. Heavy thread is also recommended for sewing leather and a light foot and plate such as teflon, that won't drag the leather pieces causing the leather to pucker, stretch and cause damage to the top surface of the Leather.



When doing a pattern for leather you need to consider that you may have to design your pattern with more pieces in order to accomodate the size of the skins (hides). When doing so always remember to add seam allowance to the pattern pieces. With Leather Jackets the seams are usually put in the waist and centre back seams. Many other seams are put in places that are not visible, for example on a two piece jacket sleeve, the seam is placed under the lower sleeve, on a collar the seam is usually placed under the lower collar, etc.



When speaking to leather garment manufacturers they have said that the bigger the skin the harder it is and the smaller skins are usually softer and if you want softer leather in longer pieces it's usually very expensive.

I would suggest that if you intend to work with Leather it's best to do a course or read alot about leather to understand and familiarise yourself with the processes involved in Leather garment manufacturing and practice sewing on imitation leathers.