By Tyrko on
May. 09, 2011
Has anyone ever embroidered on leather caps? As well as leather in general. I have a customer that wants me to do some leather items for him.
I'm a bit nervous, as leather is expensive, and I'm afraid to ruin anything, but I have an old leather jacket that I don't care about that I was going to practice on, but where do I start? What needles? Stabilizer? etc.
I have a set of Magnetic might hoops, and I'm going to use those as to not rise tearing the leather with traditional hooping, but how the heck do I hoop a leather cap without tearing it?
I'd appreciate anyone's advice.
Thanks
:)
Re: Embroidery on leather
I've done some work on leather, You need to be very careful. Use an 80/12 needle sharp, cut down the density of the design and run a little slower. remember, if you screw it up, it's toast. As for the hat, if you have fast frames, you can try that,or put a piece of backing under the teeth of the cap holder so it doesn't puncture the leather.
Re: Embroidery on leather
I have had very good results using a titanium 75/11 & a 65/9 sharp with 40 wt poly thread. Also run at a very slow speed and lower density at least 10% with minimal underlay.
If you use a normal density you can turn the design into a cookie cutter and will cut the design out of the leather. PRACTICE on scrap leather.
As for your hooping, hoop the item as tight as possible using backing as a cushion under the clamping strip and use a piece of wax paper along with your normal backing, the wax paper will lubricate the needle each time it passes thru.
Patience is the key as is Practice.
Re: Embroidery on leather
yea, ok, I meant 75/11 needles. My Bad. As for the other advice From Flint. I hadn't tried the wax paper. Good Idea.