Sewing on Leather

[blairb]

Hi all,

I need help and opinions on embroidery on leather. I've never done it, and it scares me. I'll be starting from square 1, so please help with the details.

I'm not 100% sure this is leather, or if it's what I would call nagahide. (spelling?)

The project is a personalized logo on a motorcycle seat. I will buy a piece to mess up before I take this on, and I'm sure I'll need all the help I can get.

Thanks,
Blair

[smeggy345o]

I'm interested in hearing about this too. Is there a special needle you should use?

[Wishes]

I would suggest that you find remnants or a used clothing store and find a piece of plastic, vinyl, fake leather and try it first. I haven't stitched on leather but know that you have to clamp the leather instead of hooping since it will mar the leather. You also need to use a few needle penentrations as possible since it will cut a hole if too close.
Margaret

[sschroed2]

I sew leather frequently, and allways hoop it. It's true that a needle penetration leaves a permanent hole so be sure to move to the position of your first stitch to check for pressure foot height. This will insure that you will not make a hole where you don't want one.

There are different grade/quality of leather, the only one I won't sew on is the cheap color treated ones. You can check by placing a piece of masking tape on the leather and pulling it off. If the color comes of, I'd suggest not sewing on it. The reason being is sometimes the leather pieces I get to sew require me to cut oversized backing and tape the leather edges to the backing in order to hoop with the appropriate size to fit the design. A light steaming of a steamer will remove the hoop ring. I have sewn some pretty dense designs, I use 75/11 titanimum sharp needles.

I work with several custom automotive interior business and have only had a problem when the Amaya Xt machine had a failure. Find an upholstery or auto interior business and tell them what you do, ask if they have scrap pieces of leather that they might be willing to give or sell to you. You may even get some business out of them once they know you do embroidery work.

[smeggy345o]

what size or type needle do you use?

[blairb]

sschroed2

I'm suprised at the 75/11 needles, but I'll try it. When you say you've done some pretty dense designs, are you talking about 4, or even 3? These are the settings I find look best on the stuff I've been doing.

I do have a pal that's doing some apholstry work and hadn't thought of trying to get some scrap from him. He's wanting me to do some work for him anyway, so I'm guessing it will be a good trade.

I've only been at this a little over a year, and I'm lovin every minute of it, and this board is the best. Seems I learn something new about my new XT's everyday.

Thanks all,

Blair

[sschroed2]

Blair,
Sorry I didn't get back to you earlier, I've been off line most of the day.

As for density, I Never use 3, but use 4 a lot. I just finished doing a design that had 19,000 stitches in a 3 1/2 inch diameter. This was on vinyl. Vinyl stretches a lot so I had to do layers of fill with high density numbers as if they were underlay and then a fill at 4.8 to get the coverage I needed.
The material had so much push and stretch that it had to be sewn all in one direction and I couldn't get underlay to do that. I'm not the smartest at this, only been doing it a little over 2 years now. But I generally can figure out a way to accomplish what I need.

The Leather I've worked with doesn't stretch so it's much easier to work with than the vinyl, but not everyone can afford leather auto interiors even in the classic car group which is what I do a lot.

If I can be of further help I'd be happy to share what info I have. You can contact me directly at [email protected] I'm located in So Calif.
Sue

I've had leather designs I did that were up to around 30,000 stitches + in an 11 x 14 rectangle plastic hoop. I use this hoop a lot because I don't have to change the hoop arms like you do for the large wooden hoops, and most things I do fit in it or the 15, 18 or 22 round hoops. I use these more than anything else.

[The Embroidery Authority - OLD]

Blair,
Remember that leather is a skin and not a fabric. It's properties will be different with respect to thickness and quality. You should have a good working knowledge of your Acti-feed and Standard settings so not to have too tight of stitches on thin or weak garments and also be knowledgable about density settings so that you are not putting your needle penetrations too close to one another which could lead to ripping the garment at the slightest touch.
You say this is for a motorcycle seat. I worry that your customer or their rider will be sitting on the finished work????? This could tear the leather. I would be prone to "line" this leather with another stronger fabric underneath and secure it with hidden stitches, glue or tape.
You also do not want to have unnecesary needle penetrations as holes in leather do not always close up. So don't go hog wild with underlay and lock stitches. When digitizing, every stitch in the design has to be considered as "necessary".
There are needles that have a "wedge" shaped point used in sewing on leather type goods which gives more of a "slit" shaped hole rather than a "round" hole. I don't believe Melco offers these needles in Melco Mart. They are referred to as "leather needles".
When it comes to needle size, It's been said that a smaller needle, such as the 70/10, will have less friction against the sides of the needle as it penetrates the leather than a 75/11 or 80/12 needle. Remember that leather won't "flex" like fabric does so less friction won't allow the needle to heat up as easily. A hot needle will be a softer needle and will be able to "deflect" more easily which leads to potential broken threads and broken needles.
Also slow your machine speed down and watch the machine as it sews because you only get one shot when sewing on leather type goods. ....And leather ain't cheap.
In short,... practice, practice, practice. Buy some fake leather at the fabric store to mess around with first.
Best of luck to you.
Ed Orantes
Melco Tech & Trainer

[sschroed2]

Fake leather is not the same and is not a good material for test sewouts. Which is why I suggested Blair try to get some scrap leather from a local upholstery business to practice on.

I have done Leather seats for motorcyle, classic cars, race dune buggies, forerunner race trucks, etc and there has not been any issues.

[John Cathers]

One trick for leather is to hoop a piece of wax paper between the leather and the backing.

John Cathers

[blairb]

Well, I've taken all this to heart, and read EVERY WORD!

I have some scrap leather on it's way from a buddy and hopfully, I'll get to test this soon.

I won't be actually sewing the seat, but the back rest, so I'm in hopes there won't be as much wear and tear on it. I think 70/10 needles are what I'm going to use, and will play with the backings till it's right.

Thank you all for your input. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Thanks again,

Blair