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[Music]
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hi i'm tanner and this is clearage
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leather welcome to the shop
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today we're going to be talking about
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saddle stitching leather saddle
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stitching is a technique where we use
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two needles and one thread to join some
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leather together by hand it's one of
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those foundational skills that i think
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every leather crafter should at least
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know how to do and to do pretty well
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whether you use a sewing machine or not
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it's a good skill to know so by the end
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of this video i'll show you all my
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secrets everything i've learned to make
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the best stitch possible
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but before we even touch the leather
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let's go to our trusty white board and
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talk a little bit about the theory
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behind the saddle stitch and exactly how
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it differs from a machine stitch
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[Music]
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so i drew what hopefully you can
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interpret as a cross section of a piece
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of leather
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so like if you're looking down through a
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piece of leather we've cut it off right
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where our stitch holes go through that's
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what we're looking at so in a saddle
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stitch we have one continuous thread
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which goes back and forth
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and joins the pieces of leather together
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so in this case i'm going to use a red
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marker and a blue marker to represent
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the two ends of that same piece of
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thread
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so if for example it started here the
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blue one it's going to come in this way
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like this just going to zigzag through
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so it's gonna go back and forth on the
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top side and the bottom side and back
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and forth
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and then the red is just the very same
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thing
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starting at this side
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it's gonna come
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and just go the opposite
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so where the saddle stitch has each
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individual thread going from one side of
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the leather to the other a machine
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stitch on the other hand
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has one thread staying on one side while
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the other thread stays on the other side
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and they meet in the middle and they
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kind of interlock with one another
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in the middle of the material
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so this one's going to kind of come and
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just dip in there
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like that
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it never actually travels through and
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gets to the other side
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so the the other thread
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is going to come in here i tie a little
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knot in the middle
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just keep going like that so these are
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two separate threads whereas in saddle
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stitching it's just one continuous
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thread
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so this is just a different way to show
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how each of the two threads pass all the
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way through
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and alternate as they go along on the
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saddle stitch
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i'll get a little bit more into the
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technique in a minute with actual
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needles and thread but this is a pretty
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good way to demonstrate the theory of
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the saddle stitch
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it's not quite as easy to show how the
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machine stitch would work
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basically the bottom thread the blue
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thread here
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would come up from the bottom
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kind of make a loop and then there's a
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cool mechanism inside the sewing machine
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that will then catch the top thread
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and pull it back
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and it's going to make a knot ideally in
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the middle of your material
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between the two layers
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so it's going to come up
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back down
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that's a little bit more like a machine
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stitch
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so one nice thing about hand stitching
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leather is you really don't need very
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many tools at all and the tools that you
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do need can be bought pretty
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inexpensively so i'll put a link in the
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description below of some of the more
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basic tools that i used initially for a
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few years like some stitching irons i
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got from amazon that were less than 20
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bucks for a complete set and they worked
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pretty well for for quite a while before
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i upgraded so you need some stitching
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irons or pricking irons you might find
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different names
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and they might have different
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characteristics too we can get into
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those details maybe in another video but
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basically these just punch the holes in
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your leather or mark the holes in your
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leather
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you'll need something to
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tap on this pricking iron with this is a
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a mall a berry king mall you can use a
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rawhide mallet or a plastic mallet but
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you don't want a metal hammer
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i'm going to need some thread i like to
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use this is some polyester thread
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braided polyester this is a 0.55
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millimeter thread
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it works well for the things i like to
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make and you need some needles so these
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are john james harness needles these are
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really inexpensive
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they come in a pack of 25 and they seem
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to last just about forever
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they rarely break or bend or anything
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like that so they're just these nice
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little needles they don't have a sharp
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point it's kind of rounded so that
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because the poking is done with your
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irons
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or you're all
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not not the needle itself
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this is a stitching clamp it's a nice
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thing to have
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this one is particularly nice just
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because it's easily easily positionable
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it just gives you a third hand so that
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it can hold on to whatever you're
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stitching so you don't have to hold it
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on your lap
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this is the first one that i made when i
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got going it worked pretty well it's uh
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nothing fancy had a lot of a lot of
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imperfections in in terms of the
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function but it got me by for quite a
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while so if you want to get crafty and
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make your own that's perfectly doable
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but i do think it's kind of a handy
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thing to have
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now i'm going to use my stitching iron
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right in this
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line that i've marked along the edge
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here i'll do my best to line those teeth
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up
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splitting the difference on that line
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and like we said this is going to go all
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the way through you can see how those
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teeth are coming through on the other
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side
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we'll lift that up we'll just catch and
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catch that last hole to make another
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another few holes here
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so you've probably noticed that these
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are slanted stitch holes
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every teeth on this stitching iron is
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slanted up at a diagonal angle
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so that will help to give us a nice
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diagonal look to the stitches
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that's definitely not
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a functional thing it's totally
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aesthetic but i think it adds a really
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nice classy look to the piece so that's
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why i chose these particular irons you
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can also find some that are just
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straight holes just round holes all in a
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row
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you can find some that are just like a
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straight line like a dotted line where
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the slots are not slanted they're just
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kind of straight so that'll just give
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your stitch a little bit different look
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but for the kind of stitching i do i
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like to use these slanted irons
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i think we're about ready to stitch some
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leather so the first thing we have to do
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is to determine how long our thread
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should be so i like to use about five
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times the length of the stitch line on
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the work piece five times usually gives
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me a pretty safe place to start
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sometimes i find out i have a little bit
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extra at the end which is just fine you
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don't want to come up short if you have
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a really thick piece of leather you
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might need a little bit more thread than
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that but i think let's start with five
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times on this one
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so once more i'll give a little
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disclaimer that this is the way i do it
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this is the way i found that it works
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really well for me there are some other
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people on the internet who do it other
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ways and it works really well and they
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do beautiful work so i just want to show
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you how i do it because it works well
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for me
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so we've got our thread measured out
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we're going to put our needles on either
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end of the thread so like we mentioned
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at the very beginning saddle stitching
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is done with one thread and two needles
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so now i'll show you how to put the
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needle onto the thread so it's well
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secured on each end of this thread
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so like i mentioned this is a braided
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polyester thread
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and it makes this part a little bit
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easier
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than if you were to use something like a
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linen thread
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so the first thing i'll need to do is
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put this through the eye of the needle
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which is sometimes easier said than done
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and then i actually pierce
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in between the braids in the thread
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pierce that with this needle
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you can see it's actually going right
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through the middle of the braids
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and then i just pull that knot
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right over the end of the needle
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and up toward it
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and that's on there securely
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so i'll show that one more time with a
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different thread this is ritz a tiger
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thread it's a waxed braided polyester
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thread
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i like to use that sometimes as well
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so it's a thread that kind of lays flat
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instead of that more round thread like
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the twist thread so cut it through the
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eye of the needle
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and pull it through a couple inches
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and we'll pierce in between the braids
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see it's pierced in the middle there
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and then we're gonna
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bring the tail here
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back down and just pull it
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over the end of the needle over the head
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of the needle
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and then just give it a little tug
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and i don't always like to pull this
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straight up to the eye of the needle
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sometimes it's good just leave a little
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slack there
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that probably helps it go through the
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stitch hole a little more easily
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so there are different ways to do this
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again this is the way i like to do it
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though
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i'll try to show this from several
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angles but to get started just need to
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get our thread through the first hole
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here
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and i'm going to pull this through
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so that i have even lengths of thread on
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both sides of the hole
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so i've got one needle on each side here
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and the stitch holes are slanted toward
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me so the the top edge of the hole is up
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and away and they come down toward me
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and that's the way i usually like to
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stitch and that all comes again from
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those slanted pricking irons that i use
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so the next thing i want to do
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is put my right needle through just to
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open up the hole on the left side
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i'll take my left needle and poke it
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through that hole
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so then take my right needle
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and put it behind this needle that just
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came through and that makes a little t
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i'm gonna pinch it with my thumb
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i'm not gonna pull it through all the
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way just about this far
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so i'm gonna pull this thread down and
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toward me to the front and lower corner
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of that slot
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take this needle that's in the back now
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and poke it through the upper part of
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that slot that's away from me
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i'll take this thread and just go over
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the top
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and pull it through
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a little bit of tension i'll show you
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that again here and i'll show it to you
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from a different angle so that goes
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through just open up that hole
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this comes through from the left side
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this makes a t and i'll pinch it with my
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thumb
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pulls it through a little bit
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and i'll use these fingers to kind of
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tension this down toward me
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this goes through the upper
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and further away part of that slot
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this thread goes over the top
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and a little bit of tension
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there's a little bit different angle
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we'll open that hole up
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come through from the left side
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make our tea and pinch it
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come through just a little ways here and
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we'll use these fingers to tension this
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pulling it down to that bottom part of
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that slot
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and this goes in the upper corner
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away from me
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again just lay this over on the on the
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other side
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and bring it through
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just a little bit of tension here
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so one thing you'll see me do is to
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bring my right arm and pull that thread
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down into my right
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while the left thread goes up into my
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left store the ceiling
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so that helps to orient these threads
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and help establish that nice slanted
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stitch that we're looking for i'll show
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you from the side in a minute how that
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works but so my right arm is going to go
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down to the right
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left goes up to the left
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so that's looking pretty good looks like
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we've got a nice angled stitch on the
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front side
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as well as on the back side so i'd
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really struggled with that before
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if you've struggled with that too i hope
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this method helps you to get that nice
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consistent look on both sides you almost
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can't tell which side is the better side
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which i had some trouble with that
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before so now now that we've finished up
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let's say that we got to the end of our
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stitch line i'll show you how to stitch
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back a couple stitches so that that
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locks it in and is secure and will never
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come undone
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so before we go any further and before i
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show you how to backstitch i just have
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to say that i noticed this stitch too
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and it's driving me crazy
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so uh you can see how one bad stitch can
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kind of mess up a whole stitch line
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so
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if it were a wallet or something like
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that i was making i would stop and i'd
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go back and i'd fix that one that just
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makes me uh makes me cringe and it
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probably makes you cringe too now that
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you see it so anyway pay attention to
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each and every stitch the more
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consistent you can be the nicer work
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piece you're going to have so when we
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want to back stitch now i'm going to
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kind of start my
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open up this hole again see you can see
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i'm going to go right underneath this
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last stitch here
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and then i'm going to come up from the
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bottom on the back side
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pull that through
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and again i'm going to pull this down
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toward me
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and this time put this thread up just
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above that
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and bring it through the back side
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we're not going to do that little loop
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over at this time
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you can see how it made these look kind
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of go nice and parallel next to each
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other once again i'm gonna go kind of
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underneath this
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up from the bottom side here
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[Music]
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pull this down toward me
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and this one's going to go up through
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that like here
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again
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nice and parallel
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we can go two or three
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i usually go two some people like to go
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three so we'll go three here
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and then we're done
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this is where some people can go a
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different route
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cutting these and adding glue i
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personally don't like to add glue
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i just like to take this and put it
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through
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so that i have both my ends on one side
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like if there's a side that of the work
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piece that's not going to be seen as
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much
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and i'll snip these on the back side
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which i'll show you in a minute and i
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like to just burn them it's maybe not as
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clean as the way that some people do it
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with glue but i think it works pretty
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well
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here's how that back stitch is looking
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not too shabby
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here's on the back side
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so i like to just snip these leave just
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a little bit maybe a sixteenth of an
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inch here
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about that much i just burn it with a
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lighter
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and you'll this is a
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polyester thread so it kind of melts
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down
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just two little beads
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and then just touch them
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and to me that's a pretty acceptable
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finish
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so i like that
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okay that's it that's about everything i
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know about saddle stitching thank you so
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much for watching again i really
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appreciate your support i hope this was
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valuable for you if so subscribe i got a
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lot more content coming down the road
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that i'm pretty excited about and as
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always if there's something you want to
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specifically learn let me know and i'll
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really try to incorporate that into
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future videos so thanks for joining me i
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hope this was helpful for you i'll talk
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to you soon
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[Music]
00:15:59
[Music]
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you
