Conclusion
Sewing can be a fun activity if you have the right machine to complete your projects. You’ll experience a lot of joy creating gifts and beautiful items for friends and family or to sell. If you are willing to spend so much money on a phone, then we encourage you to get a high-quality sewing machine, so you don’t experience any problems down the line.
Reasons to get a leather sewing machine
The drawback of working with leather is that you can’t afford to mess up. With cloth fabrics, you can unstitch your mistakes and redo the stitching. But every mistake you make with leather can be a costly one. Make the wrong stitches, and the leather may become useless. When you make a stitch on leather, it creates a permanent hole in the leather, unlike cloth fabrics. If you put the holes in the wrong place, that section of leather may no longer be usable. This is one of the reasons why you need the best sewing machines for the project. There are no do-overs when working with leather.
Another issue with leather is that it has this tendency to stick to the throat plate or presser foot of the machine during sewing. One solution will be to place a piece of scotch over the foot to help the leather glide under it. But if you don’t want to go through that trouble, you will need a machine with presser foot and throat plates designed to handle leather sewing.
You also need a machine that will let you make longer length stitches on leather. This is because longer length stitching seams stronger and more secure.
And to be sure your machine can handle the leather you want to sew, take a scrap piece of the leather and test your stitches on that. If everything goes well, then you can proceed to work on your project. If the machine is unable to handle the leather, then you need to invest in a new machine.
A few tips on sewing with leather
Leather is in fashion, and lots of sewing enthusiasts want to make purses, bags, wallets, jackets, etc. Working with leather can be frustrating if you don’t know what you are doing. So here a few tips and tricks that will hopefully make the process of sewing leather a fun and much more pain-free process.
- Watch out for imperfections: Before you start cutting out your patterns, examine the leather for imperfections. If you cut out your pattern and later discover that there are scars or even a hole in the leather, you might not have any leather left to make a new cut.
- Leather and pins are not friends: If you work with regular fabrics, you might be used to doing a lot of pinning. But when working with leather, pinning is a no go. Pins make permanent holes in the leather. Use clips (hair clips, paper clips, binder clip) and invincible tape in place of pins.
- Leather can stick to the presser foot or throat plates of your machine. Use Teflon foot, a walking foot, or roller foot when working on leather.
- Use the right thread: Get the right threads for sewing with leather, or you will run into problems. The best threads for sewing leather are pure nylon threads or upholstery weight polyester threads. The wrong threads can stick to the leather and attempt to pull it through the presser foot during the upstroke.
- Switch to a new needle and use a Teflon presser foot instead of a walking foot If the machine struggles to sew smooth stitches. The right needle can make a big difference to your finished product.
I am sure there are a lot more tips out there for sewing leather, and we will love to hear about it. Leave your suggestions in our comments sections below.
Can I sew leather with my home sewing machine?
This is a question that gets asked by a lot of people. The answer depends on the thickness of the leather you are working with. Your domestic sewing machine can sew real or faux leather of about 3oz (1mm to 1.2mm) thick as long as you use the correct needles, presser feet, threads, and do not make very thick seams.
For much thicker leather, you might need an industrial sewing machine to complete the project. We recommend you get an industrial leather sewing machine for commerical or large projects. Otherwise, if your thick leather project is a one-off or a once in a while project, then your best option might be to hand-sew the leather.
But if you will only be working with lightweight leather, then your home sewing machine is perfectly fine for most projects if you get the right accessories. Check out the top computerized sewing machines here.
Whenever you are unsure, test a sample of the leather with a few stitches to see if your machine can handle them.