Starting and finishing the saddle stitch - An overlooked part of sewing

7

You can find dozens of tutorials showing you how to do the saddle stitch but they never really goes into detail about how to start and finish the stitch. They do show how you should do it but for some reason they accept uneven and dissimilar stitches.


Here we have stitching shown from Armitage Leather. You clearly see that the first two stitches (to the right) are painfully ugly. The threads are laying on top of each other in a weird way. Also the last stitches are far from perfect. The very last stitch is actually very nice with the two threads laying nice and parallel. The following two stitches are a mess.

           
Same goes with another popular leatherworker. To be fair his stitches are not uneven he just uses a very big thread so the last two stitches (to the left) just gets a bit thicker. This is not the look I'm after so that doesn't really help me.

These two examples are not meant to question the ability of the either of the two. Their contribution to the leatherworking community is immense and have without a doubt helped a lot of people. I'm sure that they agree that there is always room for improvement and therefore I have made this guide.

To show you what I'm after have a look at these stitches from daisukenshin on instragram. Perfectly parallel stitches:

I always seem to forget how to avoid these ugly start and finishes so I decided to once and for all figure it out. I have included a number of different starts and also how to continue a stitch after running out of thread. I'm sure that there are better ways to archive the same or better results but this is the way I do it for now. There is still room for improvement so it might very well change in the future. To be able to get the same results as me you have to stitch the same way I do. Go here to see how I do it.

Simple beginning 

This is what the end result looks like:

And this is how you do it:

Beginning with threads over an edge

This is what the end result looks like:

And this is how you do it:

Beginning with threads over an edge at 90º

This have already been covered here

Simple finish

This is what the end result looks like:

And this is how you do it:

Finishing with 2½ double stitches over an edge

This is what the end result looks like:

And this is how you do it:

Finishing with 2½ double stitches over an edge at 90º

It is actually not 100% correct pictures of the finished stitches. The ones shown here has a bit crossed threads in the stitch going over the edge. This has been corrected in the step by step guide.

Continue stitching over new stitches

This is what the end result looks like:

And this is how you do it:

Continue stitching going over old stitching

This is what the end result looks like:

And this is how you do it:

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Don't waste your money on expensive pricking irons.

9

My go to pricking iron the last 4 years has been this one from goods japan:

It is actually a stitching chisel but I have never used it as such. I just tap it lightly and make the holes with an awl just like you would with a pricking iron.

The specs on the iron says that it will make holes 4 mm apart resulting in 6,35 spi. I then bought one with 6 teeth and found out that my old iron was wrongly spaced. It actually had around 4,2 mm

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Sewing partition board to gusset

3

In all projects there are things you do not look forward to. Gluing and sewing the partition board to the gusset is one of them. The reason is that it did not went well last time I did it. I had huge problems keeping the edge of the partition board up against the gusset. When I then sewed it I did not penetrate the board having to pull out stitches and forcing the partition board in place. It was a real mess.

Having learned from my mistakes I now have a thought of bullet proof approach... I hope. The ingredients to success are lots of contact cement, two strips of wax paper and four paper clamps.

Last time I think I was a bit stingy with the contact cement. This time around I made sure that there were plenty of surface covered with glue. I marked a line around 7 mm from the edge and sanded it to help the cement get a better grip. The folds of the gusset were also covered with a fair amount of cement. Make sure that you do not go all the way up to the top unless your partition board also does.

To avoid that the sides would get stuck while inserting the partition board I covered them with a strip of wax paper held in place with paper clamps. This worked exactly as I had hoped for. The partition board glided right down the gusset without issues.

After removing the paper clamps in one side you pull the wax paper up a few cm and press and pinch the gusset around the partition board. Make sure that the partition board goes all the way out to the gusset.

I put a small mark to help guide in the board when gluing it to the gusset

The gusset need a mark as well. The right mark was placed wrong so it is the left one that is correct

 Scribe a line around 7 mm from the edge along all 3 sides of the gusset (not the top)

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