My first sporran, and a desperate plea for help!

[turpin]

Veg-tan is for tooling. The chrome-tanned are the soft leathers she would use for the gusset. Shoe coulde have a few shades of brown (with grain on) that would at least be complementary to the dye she uses on the tooling leather. Even if she used the same dye on her light-colored gusset leather she'd be lucky to get a match due to different tanning processes taking up the dye differently.

[hylander]

In skimming resonses I didn't see any offers of traditional patterns, so here are a few links to "traditional" patterns:

http://www.theclanmoncrieff.com/, just go the sporrans page link and there is a link to a sporran pattern.

This is another from Xmarks:
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...-design-24029/

and of course this is a very good walk through by professional sporran maker:
http://ssa.nls.uk/film.cfm?fid=0958

These are pretty good staring points. I like your first try, keep going!

[Pleater]

A technique I used on leather - due to not having very abrasion resistant thread, was to imitate the stitch of a sewing machine. I was sewing together my school satchel when I did this, and I happened to have access to a really tiny latch tool - I think that it was used for mending nylon stockings, but I am sure that a tiny crochet hook would work too.

You have two ends of thread just like the double saddle stitch, and the process is to draw a loop of one of the threads through the holes then pass the other thread through the loop and tighten both so the cross over is inside the leather.

I must have sewn that satchel up a dozen times using tripled ordinary sewing thread, but in the end I used some fine wire and that lasted until I didn't need it any longer.

I have seen decorative stitching and knitted jewellery made with a fine copper wire wrapped in different colours of silk, which was rather extravagant but very eye catching.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Ryan Ross]

A technique I used on leather - due to not having very abrasion resistant thread, was to imitate the stitch of a sewing machine. I was sewing together my school satchel when I did this, and I happened to have access to a really tiny latch tool - I think that it was used for mending nylon stockings, but I am sure that a tiny crochet hook would work too.

You have two ends of thread just like the double saddle stitch, and the process is to draw a loop of one of the threads through the holes then pass the other thread through the loop and tighten both so the cross over is inside the leather.

I must have sewn that satchel up a dozen times using tripled ordinary sewing thread, but in the end I used some fine wire and that lasted until I didn't need it any longer.

I have seen decorative stitching and knitted jewellery made with a fine copper wire wrapped in different colours of silk, which was rather extravagant but very eye catching.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

The problem with that type of stitch is that if the thread on one side of the seam breaks, the entire seam can come apart; this is because each of the two threads stays on the same side all the time. With the saddle stitch, if one thread breaks at one point, the other thread will still hold the seam together.

Just a thought...

[Tobus]

The problem with that type of stitch is that if the thread on one side of the seam greaks, the entire seam can come apart; this is because each of the two threads stays on the same side all the time. With the saddle stitch, if one thread breaks at one point, the other thread will still hold the seam together.

Just a thought...

Exactly! This is one of the reasons I don't like the lock-stitch method using a leather awl. If you ever get a broken thread anywhere along the stitch, you can accidentally "unzip" the whole thing very easily. With the double-needle method, each thread passes through the holes and crosses to the other side of the leather numerous times, and it really locks the whole thing together nicely.

I've had to take a couple of pieces apart after stitching them this way, and it' fairly difficult. You have to pretty much cut every stitch and pull out the pieces of thread one at a time.