Sewing With Leather and Suede For a Professional Finish – Sewing Machines Los Angeles

Some fabrics can look really, really great when sewn correctly and some fabrics are very tricky to sew correctly.

Leather and suede come to mind immediately. I love suede in particular, it is soft to touch and has a lovely warm look for winter.

Don’t be put off buying it to make up something for yourself as it is not the easiest to sew and have look really good. You just need to know a few tips to get it right.

Firstly never use pins to hold your seams before sewing. Get some of those binder clips or bulldog clips the small size.

Hold the fabric together with these instead of pins. The first one will go out of the way of your pressure foot at the top edge and the others down the seam allowance.

Allow 1/2 inch seam instead of the 5/8 inch seam and use polyester or cotton wrapped polyester thread.

Line up so the first stitch goes into the leather or suede, do not back stitch when starting or finishing, instead tie off the threads, pull threads to one side and then tie off, leave the ends long as these will be included in the seam edge finishing.

Using a seam stick and a small wallpaper roller open the seam out and with pressure roll the wallpaper roller along the finished seam allowance. Unfortunately these will pop back after so you need to use permanent contact cement.

Sounds drastic, I know but it’s not. You don’t use very much.

I use a coated disposable plate to put a small amount of contact cement on and then take a Q tip or cotton bud with a little on and run this along the under side of the seam allowance (keeping a little away from the start and finish of the seam) and press down with fingers, don’t stretch.

Do the other side in the same way and then press flat with the wallpaper roller.

Make sure you only put enough of the contact cement to get a bond.

This will give you a lovely pliable seam on your suede or leather.

Simple when you know how and now you can make that wonderful leather or suede outfit and save some very good dollars by making it yourself.