Melly Sews

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How to Sew Leather – Tips and Tricks

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How to sew leather with a home sewing machine

How to sew leather - tips and tricks for sewing leather - Melly Sews

Hey y’all – welcome to a post I thought I had already written, ha! I have a leather project planned for next week, and I was working on it and planning to link to the post I KNEW I had written about how to sew leather. I googled “Melly Sews Leather Tips” and nothing came up. Hmm. And then I searched my own site and couldn’t find it. So then I went back through my archives and guess what? I had included some tips within other leather projects, but I’d never written a leather tips post. So here it is. AND I made a video for those of you who prefer to see and hear me talk about tips instead of reading them. You can watch the video on YouTube here if you prefer or it won’t load below.

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Links to tools in video, commissions earned on these links
Rolling presser foot
Leather needles
Heavy Duty Thread
Sewing clips
Point turner
Cutting mat
Rotary cutter

Tips for Sewing Leather:

  • Use a rotary cutter, mat and ruler
  • Don’t pin. Pin marks will be permanent. Use clips to hold pieces together if necessary.
  • Mark pattern pieces with pen or marker on the wrong side of the hide, or use chalk on the right side of the hide.
  • Use leather needles and heavy duty thread
  • Increase your presser foot pressure
  • Lengthen your stitch length
Leather needles and heavy duty thread - Melly Sews

Switch to leather needles and heavy duty thread as shown above. You should also lengthen your stitch length to the longest one your machine will do. On my machine there is a separate basting stitch that is longer than I can lengthen my straight stitch, so I use the basting stitch setting.

Wonder Clips - Colleen Tote Bag pattern

Sewing clips as shown above, also known as Wonder Clips, are great for working with leather since you can’t pin leather without leaving permanent holes.

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