Of all the jobs in the fashion world, especially sewing, one of the most difficult is sewing leather by hand. The toughest among us tried it and emerged victorious. Some ammunition on our side does help to win the battle. Sewing leather by hand certainly requires precision, patience and high accuracy. The following is a list of tools needed by a leather sewing beginner to become a leather sewing expert. Or maybe at least to start hand sewing.

Here are some basic hand sewing leather tools!

1. Good quality skin

It goes without saying, but a beginner can get lost in the world of leather. There are many different leather types, you can learn more about the different leather types available for your project here. Super soft and lightweight leather is most preferred for making handbags, as it is easy to sew and soft to the touch. A 2 mm (3 ounce) is required for external work (making purses, backpacks etc.) and carving purposes and 1 mm is used for internal work. Buy already colored leather if you are a beginner and don’t want to bother with the coloring process. They are tooled and hand dyed and finished with a stain.

2. Needle

You will need two nice thick hand sewing needles with big eyes. There is a leather needle that makes a hole when sewing. There is also a needle with a sharp triangular tip for cutting thick leather. Also called a glove. A leather needle with a longer triangular point at the end is called a sail-making needle. You’ll also find other hand sewing needles such as the long lining needle and the curved needle that are useful for several projects.

3. Yarn

You can sew leather by hand with heavy sewing thread. Linen thread is recommended by many experts. You can also request a heavy duty polyester coating thread or a nylon bonded thread at the store. But pre-waxed leather sewing thread makes your life easy. Pre-waxed nylon thread is good enough for most jobs.

If you’re using regular sewing thread, rub a little beeswax over it to make it firm enough and reduce tangling. Cotton thread is usually not used by experts because it can break easily. However synthetic threads with a diameter of more than 0.6 mm can be used. Pre-waxed thread for hand sewing leather is available in a variety of thicknesses and types depending on your project.

4. Diamond Awl

This is used to make holes in the leather before you start sewing. This Diamond Awl comes in several sizes that will impact your sewing holes later.

5. Ruler

For rulers used in making leather goods, it is highly recommended to use a long metal one, as well as a transparent ruler. Of course, this ruler is used to mark the stitch line on the skin.

6. Good quality sharp scissors

Pretty self-explanatory isn’t it? To cut vegetables, we need sharp scissors. Of course this is also applied to sewing quite thick leather. It would be useless to sew without good scissors.

7. Clips

As you already know, you can’t use safety pins or basting stitches on leather. Instead you can use binding clips to hold pieces of leather together. You can even use cloth (wooden) pegs for thin soft leather. Alternatively you can use masking tape, use stapler pins on seam allowances where it applies, etc.

8. Glue

You can buy shoe glue or leather glue. It is necessary to glue something before sewing it permanently.

9. Blades / rotary cutter

As has been said before, the leather is best cut with a very sharp knife. Cutting straight cuts, properly rounded corners is best done with a knife. Even skiving was well done. You can buy a head knife or a leather trimmer knife. You can also use a rotary cutter or a general utility knife sometimes called a Stanley knife. Even use a very sharp X-Acto Blade – just make sure it has a disposable blade as you need one that is very sharp for cutting leather.

10. Cutting Mat

If you are cutting with a rotary cutter or an exact knife/knife, you will need to protect the cutting surface with a mat. It is advisable to purchase a special cutting mat, but you can use a board or rubber mat.

11. Thimbles

By doing this process you need protection for your hands from harm. Thimble or finger gloves can protect your fingers from the sharp edges of all your leather sewing tools. You may not think this is necessary until you get that first jab/cut. And many more that will come if you will pursue this hobby.

12. A seam pony

Though the names sound frivolous the jobs they do, they hold the leather pieces together and make your sewing less frustrating. Once you use one of them you may decide you will not sew without them.

13. A drawing wheel

The drawing wheel/overstitch wheel makes dots on the leather. This even mark is then converted into the hole where the stitches are performed.

14. Sewing Hook Awl

It is used for sewing leather instead of using a needle. You can sew with this awl which has a hook on the eye to carry the thread around.

15. Rivet and rivet setting tools

Rivets are used as an alternative to sewing to glue two pieces of leather together.

Above are 15 tools that you definitely need to stitch leather by hand for beginners. But there are also some supporting tools that you may or may not need, but usually professionals use them. Are you curious? Read this article to find out!