Modern stores offer a wide variety of faux leather. With all the advantages of this material - ease of care and sewing, beautiful appearance, very similar to genuine leather, - it continues to attract lovers of needlework with its relatively low price.

However, in order for artificial leather products to please the eye, you need to familiarize yourself with some of the nuances of sewing this material. There are not very many of them - much less than when it comes to real leather. Still, knowing these rules will greatly facilitate the work.

There are only three problems:

1. The skin sticks to the foot, slowing down the sewing machine. The machine seems to “trample” in one place.
2. Punctures from a sewing needle are clearly visible on the surface of the material.
3. The skin often tears under the stitches.

In accordance with these features, you can give some tips for working with artificial leather.

At the stage of cutting out, trying on and preliminary basting, it should be remembered that the use of pins and a hand needle is strictly prohibited, since punctures cannot be avoided in this case. Instead, you can, for example, put some kind of weight on a pattern that should be traced onto the fabric.

It is advisable to cut the details of the cut not with scissors, but with a special circular knife. At the same time, you need to put a flat board or glass down, which will not be a pity to cut. If you need an even cut, you can use a plastic ruler.

To work on sewing machine you need to purchase a special foot, made of Teflon or equipped with rollers. This contributes to the fact that the artificial leather does not slow down, moving freely. If such a foot could not be found, then during the sewing process, a strip of waxed paper can be applied on top of the skin - this will facilitate the movement of a regular foot. When the stitching is done, you need to carefully tear off the paper along the sides of the seam, and then remove the remnants.

Another way is to simply lubricate the skin with oil (machine or vegetable).

The sharpest needles should be chosen, as this will make the puncture less noticeable. For example, jeans needles are suitable. There are, of course, special needles for sewing genuine leather, but they are no longer very suitable for artificial leather. It must also be remembered that leatherette dulls them much faster than other fabrics, so the needle should be changed as often as possible.

The stitches should be fairly long. If the stitch is short, the thread is too tight and may damage the material. That is why skin tears can often be observed between needle punctures. To avoid this, you can use a “zigzag” instead of a simple straight stitch.

When sewing, it is convenient to use small hairpins or even invisible hairpins to pre-connect parts. In this way, the edges of the parts to be sewn can be aligned, and when the foot approaches the clamping point, the invisibility should simply be removed.

In order for the stitching not to wag and look neat, it is better not to set the stroke too fast. The slower you sew, the better the result will be.
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Leather goods have always been highly valued. This material is widely used in tailoring, making various accessories and even jewelry. Unfortunately, the skin is quite whimsical, you should work with it with special care. Therefore, if you decide to make any crafts, we will tell you how to sew leather on sewing machine correctly, so that the finished product will serve you for a year.

Varieties and types of leather

The general appearance and thickness of the skin depends entirely on the raw materials from which it was made, as well as on the technology of dressing. Accordingly, the material is divided into grades, from which in the future they are already made. finished goods. For example:

• soft leather is used for sewing the vest;
• for bags it is best to take a hard grade;
• as for the manufacture of jewelry, in this case it is most appropriate to use kid soft skin.

Necessary tools for work

Before sewing leather at home, you need to take into account the fact that it has many of its “secrets” and nuances. They should be known and applied while working with this material:

• When cutting out details, it should be remembered that the skin in its structure in the transverse direction is stretched much more than in the longitudinal direction. Accordingly, if the details of the pattern are paired, they should be cut in the same direction.

Important! It is impossible to chip the skin with pins, as traces remain that will be visible on the finished product.

• Depending on the type of material with which you are working, you should select and necessary tools. For example, soft leather can be sewn on a sewing machine using #80 and #90 needles. As for the coarse grade, in this case it is best to work manually using a special needle, in which the tip is made in the form of a triangular tip.

Important! When sewing leather on a sewing machine, the stitch length should not be too fine. This is due to the fact that due to frequent punctures, the material at the joints will simply break.

• The skin incision also needs to be made with a special instrument. For these purposes, a shoe (furrier's) knife is best suited.

Important! Such material should be cut on a plastic surface or plexiglass, since if the process is carried out on a wooden base, the knife will simply crash into it.

In addition to the above tools, you will also need:

• Thimble;
• rubber glue;
• Strong synthetic threads;
• Adhesive seam enhancer;
• A hammer;
• Awl.

How to sew leather at home?

Depending on the type of material you have chosen for the future product, the presence of any skills and knowledge, leather can be stitched at home in three ways:

• Needle;
• Crochet;
• On a sewing machine.

We sew the skin with a needle

To flash this material with a needle, you need to follow the following sequence of actions:

• Draw a line on the material by extrusion, which will serve as a guide in subsequent work.
• Using a hammer and a punch, make the number of holes you need along the line.

Important! While making holes, a piece of thick rubber should be placed under the material.

• Open the finished holes.
• Place the material in the clamp. Now you can move on to stitching. You can sew with a saddle stitch, “needle forward” or join the pieces with a seam over the edge.

Important! If desired, you can work with two needles at the same time, and to facilitate the work, pre-rub them with wax.

How to crochet leather

If you do not have a special needle, do not despair. You can do a great job with a crochet or an awl. This should be done very carefully, because, unfortunately, stitching leather parts in this way, they can be easily damaged.

The procedure is as follows:

1. Hold the awl or hook in one hand, and the prepared overcast in the other.
2. Make a hole on the outside of the workpiece and insert the hook into it.
3. Make a loop of thread from the wrong side, stretch it with a hook to the front side of the workpiece.
4. Disconnect the hook and pull on one end of the thread. As a result, you will have one end of the thread on the front side, and the other on the wrong side.
5. Make another hole in the material.
6. Insert a hook into the hole and hook the thread from the inside. Pull it up so that its tip is above front side at a height of about 10 mm.
7. Release the hook, and pull a piece of the previously obtained thread into the resulting loop.
8. Tighten the stitch, then pull the thread from the inside.
9. At the end of all the work, as soon as the first and last stitch touch, take a few steps in the opposite direction. The thread should be pulled into the old holes.

How to sew leather on a household machine?

I would like to start right away by saying that you can sew leather on an ordinary sewing machine, but not thick. A sewing machine can easily cope with a material thickness of about 1-1.5 millimeters, but with an already denser one, you will have to tinker with it manually. The sewing process itself is similar, the only difference is that you first have to create special “conditions” for your working tool:

• The needle for sewing leather should be special, with a round cross section. The end of such a needle has sharp edges, but due to the non-standard shape, it easily pierces the material, while gently pushing the fibers apart without cutting through them.
• If the needle fails to cut a hole during operation, you can set the needle to a tighter setting or change to a thinner material.
• If there are difficulties with the threads and they do not tighten, try replacing them with linen or nylon.
• In order for the conveyor to easily cope with the advancement of the material, purchase a special roller, fluoroplastic or teflon foot.

Important! Very often, in order not to spend money on acquiring an additional foot, experienced tanners lubricate the pattern with oil, sprinkle it with talcum powder, or simply help the movement with their hands during work.

And finally, we want to offer you a few good advice, which will be useful to you during the manufacture of various leather products:

• Try to choose patterns that do not require landing. As for intricate shapes, they are best done with intricate seams rather than darts.
• When tailoring, avoid kimono sleeves. It is best to work with a shirt cut, as it has a deep armhole.
• When working with leather, you should use already proven patterns. If this is not possible, sew a trial item from another material.
• Before cutting from the wrong side of the material, mark the holes and various irregularities that you can get around while cutting out the parts. Do it better ballpoint pen or pencil.
• During cutting, the skin is stretched in different directions. Therefore, it is very important to observe the correct direction of paired parts.

Important! When cutting

Before sewing leather, read our tips. They will help you avoid many mistakes and save time. After all, contrary to numerous statements, working with leather, especially natural, is quite simple. Skin - very noble natural material, which has a very difficult character and at the same time fits perfectly, looks gorgeous in products and, importantly, wears for a long time without losing its appearance.

Secrets of tailoring leather goods

1. Genuine leather is sold in pieces, which, due to the natural origin of the material, may have various color defects, holes and irregularities.
Therefore, going to the store for leather, take the entire set of patterns with you. So you can accurately buy the number of pieces that you need.

2. Details of the product must not be swept away with a needle and thread, as perforation marks remain on the skin.

Therefore, before performing a machine stitch, fasten the parts together with the same pins with which you pin the patterns to the fabric, but you need to stick them perpendicular to the seam, along the seam allowance, in no case go beyond the seam line. Sew directly over the pins, remove the pins after stitching.

Rice. 1. Stitching leather parts

3. The sewn parts of the product cannot be torn at the seams for the same reason - traces of the needle remain.

Therefore, advice: sew leather products only according to proven patterns, according to which you have already sewed before and which will not require you to make any changes.

Advice: sew the product that you planned to sew from leather, from mock-up fabric. So you can make all the necessary changes to the pattern and boldly cut the skin according to the proven pattern.

Rice. 2. Glue, hammer and leather foot

4. After completing the stitch, the seam allowances must be laid out in different directions, tapped with a hammer (you can buy it at the hardware store, in extreme cases, you can use an ordinary iron hammer) so that they “smooth out”, the seam allowances are glued to the product using special glue for the skin.

In the event that the skin is thin and soft, allowances can be smoothed out with a slightly heated iron through a slightly damp cloth.

Attention! Before stroking the skin, be sure to try on an unnecessary piece.

5. If according to the model it is required to sew along the seams, sew them without any thread basting, and in order for the line to lie parallel to the seam, guide it along the foot of the sewing machine (it should go along the edge of the seam).

Extra tip: so that the foot advances the skin well and does not stretch it, as you move, lubricate the skin in front of the foot vegetable oil. This will ensure that the skin moves smoothly under the foot, and the excess oil remaining on the skin can be easily removed. soft cloth. Use a special skin needle.

Skin needle

6. The lining for leather products is sewn in the same way as for products made of ordinary fabric.

7. Leather products are not washed, but dry-cleaned.

If the skin becomes rough or loses original view, it can be lubricated with a sponge with ordinary glycerin and left for a day - it will again become soft and acquire its original color.

All tips related to genuine leather equally apply to artificial leather products, with the only difference being that you can accurately calculate the required amount of fabric per product.

Artificial leather is made both on a fabric and knitted basis. If you are using knitted leather for your garments, remember that it can stretch both longitudinally and transversely. When sewing parts under the presser foot, tension on the upper part may occur, which can lead to its elongation and deformation. To prevent this from happening, the parts are duplicated with a special low-temperature cushioning fabric, which is glued to the parts with an iron at minimum temperatures without damaging the skin itself.

So that the skin does not stretch under the foot when performing finishing seams, place a strip of tracing paper under the foot. After sewing, the paper can be easily removed.

Now you know how to sew leather! Subscribe to free lessons of Anastasia Korfiati Sewing School!

Hello, dear readers of the site of cutting and sewing - site. The sewing circle continues its work. Today we will talk about the skin. Or rather, her sewing. We will not consider how to sew leather on a simple machine, at least for now. Usually the phrase - "my machine does not take the skin" is not true. How to sew leather on a typewriter is not the topic of today's material. But first, a warning. The hand tool used must be sharp. Strangely enough, the dumber the awl for the skin, the higher the likelihood of getting hurt by it. This, in principle, applies to any tool with a cutting edge. Including regular kitchen knives...

Training

A line is marked along which the line will pass. Marked by simple punching. If there is a special tool for marking the position of the stitches, then using it, you can give the stitches a neat, professional look. With certain skills, this tool is not needed. Enough sewing. The thread is taken as long as four times the length of the intended connection. Both ends of the thread are threaded into the needles. The parts to be joined are placed in the clamp. Important note. Hands should be washed well. Very easy on the skin leave stains, which are difficult to derive.

What threads to sew leather

The type of seam considered in this material is the simplest. Bears the name of the saddle. A classic thread for making this type of seam will be a thread made from linen. Linen material is durable, but, nevertheless, in need of additional protection. Wax acts as a protection against moisture. If you paid attention, on expensive leather bags, the seams feel slippery to the touch. This is because the thread used in them is impregnated with wax. In Chinese, you can buy ready-made threads. The wise Chinese do not use natural materials in the production of such products.

Begin

First, let's examine the awl. It is better if its working point is in the form of a blade. In this case, the stitches will fit into the grooves left by the side edges of the awl tip. The awl for the skin is characterized by just such a shape of the tip. Round awls are also quite suitable for the job. And to get its grooves, an awl, you can swing it a little after piercing the parts to be fastened. The main thing is not to overdo it. At the first threading of the needle, the awl itself can be conveniently intercepted with the right hand.

We thread the thread finally and align it in length. Now you need to learn how to manage three tools (two needles and one awl). And two hands! The photograph provides an explanation. Needles, when they are not in use, are conveniently grasped with the inside of the index and middle fingers. The resistance to pressing force during piercing is carried out by the index and thumb left hand. Just not very close to the puncture site. With this operation, a dull tool can play a cruel joke. It just slips off. And to pierce the skin of his hand, his sharpness is enough.

Needles

After the hole is formed, the awl is tacked into right hand little finger. The right needle lies between the middle and index fingers. The left needle, from the wrong side, is passed through the hole that has just appeared with the left hand.

The right needle is held by the thumb and forefinger and placed behind the left needle, forming a cross.

Now the left needle is pulled out completely from the hole. The thumb and forefinger hold the needle. The ring finger, in the area of ​​​​the eye of the needle, holds the thread, preventing it from falling out. The forefinger and thumb of the left hand straighten the thread, preventing it from tangling as it passes through the hole. When the thread is pulled, the right needle is threaded through the same hole. The thread of the right needle lies behind the thread of the left needle.

The thread threaded with the left needle is slightly taut as the right needle passes.

tightening

After both threads are threaded, the stitch must be tightened. The hole made by the awl should have a diameter that allows the threads to be tightly held. They should not move freely in the hole, while simultaneously threading through it with some, not very much effort. The seam is pulled tight. Be careful not to damage your fingers with the thread. Of course, there is a fix. The way we are used to it. Only in the case of sewing leather by hand, a couple of reverse stitches are sufficient. Both threads are brought to the wrong side. Cut off without tying. This may spoil the appearance of the product.

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Hello!

Material such as leatherette or other types of artificial leather is quite difficult for ordinary household sewing machines that are not designed to work with this type of material. Often the reason for these difficulties can be that the presser foot of the machine simply cannot slide over the surface of the material in the same way as over woven fabrics. By the way, the same problems as with artificial leather can arise when trying to sew any product from a dense plastic film, for example, a raincoat.

Method number 1

It must be said that the solution to such a problem was born in the anguish and suffering of seamstresses who tried to adapt and sew magnificent artificial leather products using the simplest household sewing machines.

If you decide to sew something from leatherette, you should first set up the mechanism. Set the machine to the maximum possible stitch length. In the process of attaching the material, the leatherette should be tightened by hand with maximum uniformity. A household machine will certainly sew through the material, only depending on how you pull it up, its line will consist of stitches of various lengths and will even be crooked.

Method number 2

Another way to solve this problem can be the most plain paper. It will be very easy for the machine foot to slide over such material, therefore, to ensure high-quality sewing of artificial leather, you should put paper strips on both sides of the product.

In this case, you will certainly be able to create an even and beautiful seam, and you can easily remove the paper from an already stitched product by simply tearing it along the seam, which will act as a perforation.

The inconvenience in this method can be primarily the tendency of the paper to tear right under the presser foot. And also, using paper stripes, it can be difficult to make a high-quality curvilinear seam due to poor visibility, so craftsmen advise using more transparent tissue paper.

Method number 3

In order to ensure the proper level of sliding of the foot on artificial leather, you can also use such an inexpensive material as masking tape, which is used during repairs to ensure the accuracy of painting the walls. It is with the help of this adhesive tape that the machine foot is glued from below. Masking tape should cover exactly the surface that is in direct contact with the fabric. Do not forget to also cut a slot in the adhesive tape for the unhindered movement of the needle.

You should also glue the surface on the machine itself with tape, providing a slot for the output of the lower thread.

Using one of the 3 presented methods, you can create amazing faux leather products at home on the simplest sewing machine. The main thing for this process is to make sure that the needle you use is thick enough, because. she will have to work with dense material. Also pay attention to the thread you use to create stitches on thick faux leather. The thread must be strong enough and suitable for your model of sewing machine.

Best regards, Alexandra.