Here is a tidbit about the difference between making a leather bag and a fabric bag. I don’t know if any of you are into making leather bags, but here goes.
Thickness is the enemy of the bag maker! In leather to overcome the thickness of a turned edge leather bag, the leather must be skive no matter what type of machine you have. If raw edge then thickness becomes less of a problem, yet will remain a problem depending on the weight of the leather. The weight will determine if skiving is necessary.
If you don’t skive the bag will have a bulky homemade look. If you look at a high quality bag the edges are thin and have a refined look. This happens even when using heavy fabric to avoid this look and give your bags a better look, consider flatten the seams. The closer the stitch is to the edge will also give you a more professional look.
If skive properly and you have a walking foot attachment, you can make a complete leather bag on a home machine, yes it’s possible I did for the longest time. The purple leather bag below was made on Linda’s little Singer 221K if you google it you can see how tiny it is, she got when she was a teenager. Remember though I have been making and designing bags for 25 years, so don’t try it but it can be done.
When buying a machine and working on leather the machine must be a walking foot, so the leather is fed from the bottom and the top.
When thinking about buying a machine for leather you can kill two birds with one stone by buying a cylinder, with the adjustable table that also allows for the cylinder to work like a flatbed. With this combo you get two machines for the price of one and save thousands of dollars. The cylinder will allow you to close your bag much easier and it allows you to make structured handbags two which are sewn completely different.
Great artcle Richard.
I couldn’t agree more with thickness as the greatest enemy in making handbags whether it be leather or fabric. Hence, do you think that the greatest challenge for a beginner when they venture out in making leather handbag is learning how to skive leather? In the absence of a skiving machine, what would be the easiest hand skiving tool to start with?
May I share this article in Facebook?
Hi Adona,
Of course you can share!
The best skiver for a beginner, interesting question! A hand skiver is the cheapest but you get what you pay for. There is a learning curve with all hand skivers since each leather hide will skive differently. With a hand skiver you will ruin a lot of leather before you get the hang of it!
Let me also suggest Japanese cutting knives too, but they are more expensive. I will do a video for you using a hand skiver.
Hi Richard just wanted to know if you did the video on how to skiver the leather? I would need to watch it for my next class. Thank you
Hi Charsetta,
There is a skiving video in “shorts” which you can view in each course.
I am new to this having started today. I suppose skiving means paring or shaving off some of the thickness of the material being used to make the bag.
Hi Richard,
Not sure if this is the right video related to shaving off would that be the “Flat Seams” video because it didn’t use a skiving knife. Is there a video showing how to use a skiving knife? I couldn’t find the video that uses the skiving knife or do I use the mallet technique in the “Flat Seams” video.