[mariasasse]

Through Olive S patterns I have learned to not be afraid of challenges. I am considering buying this pattern in order to make a christmas present for my mother in law who is really a beautiful person. I have some leather, very soft and thin that my mother gave to me some time ago and I was thinking it could maybe be used to make this bag. Does anyone know if this can be sewn in a normal sewing machine and if this is at all possible or I am just a big dreamer?

[Sarvi]

Hi Maria, I have sewn a few small details with leather like you describe, and yes, I was able to sew it on my regular machine, but it was tricky. Are there some odd-shaped corners you could test a few stitches on to see if your machine will work on it? Mine will handle some leathers better than others. If it does not work well on your machine, it may still be possible to add some leather accents, say perhaps to a camel-colored canvas bag, or a wool tweed bag? One trick I used for small accents on leathers my machine couldn’t make firm stitches on was to use it as a perforating tool — I used an empty needle and ‘sewed’ where I wanted the stitches to go, then I had a neat and even line of holes to fill with hand sewing.

It sounds like it will make a very beautiful bag!

[mkhs]

You can buy special machine needles for leather, too– I’ve seen them at Joann Fabrics.

[sosew]

One thing to be aware of, you often can’t rip out seams and resew with leather like you can to fix errors with fabric (because you get the small holes that won’t go away).

Obviously not impossible but you need to go extra slow and make sure you get things right on the first go

[Nicole]

Make sure you have a go on some scraps.

Suede is a lot easier to sew then leather too.

I use those small bull dog clips to hold things together.