Sewing Machines?

[Black Hand]

If you have a needle of the same size you are using for sewing, make it into a triangular awl.
Drill a small hole into a piece of wood/antler/branch, and glue in with epoxy or superglue. Grind the tip carefully into a triangle and smooth on fine sandpaper or a sharpening stone. I used an old harness needle.

The triangular tip is easy to push through leather, as the edges cut. A round awl/needle forces its way through the leather, and takes much more effort. The triangular hole doesn't close either, making the hole easier to find. You'll find that the awl considerably speeds the process of hand-sewing leather, even thick leather.

 

[ric]

ryzman, if you are involved in juried events use the technology of the time period. for some this slavish attention to detail is rewarding fun. let them enjoy it. when i have a project i split the difference and use an eldridge treddle vibrating shuttle sewing machine that my wife's grandma had, with hand sewing as needed. not period correct but fun. regards, ric

 

[Black horse]

Loyalist Dave, well said Sir, very well said.
I left a club because of "thread counters" and people who like to point out that something you have might not be PC or HC.
My brother and I do our own thing now and make what we can from what supplies we can find and we dont care about someone inspecting our equipment.
Some things I hand sew and other items I machine sew.
This is a fun sport we do but certain types of people try to take the fun out of it.
I vote save your fingers and use a machine.

 

[mmahlock]

Depending on what you are sewing a practical machine may not be the best choice. If money is no object then there is a machine for everything. However, not too long ago I saw a sewing machine basically for fabric that had a "hand stitching" mode. It apparently randomly varied the length of the stitches and the alignment so that the stitching looked like it was hand done. :idunno: