Embroidery on leather

Tyrko

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

dubiat

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.

Flint54

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.

dubiat

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.