Donald, Where's yer Troosers?

I am sitting rather gingerly while I type this post. The reason is this...

My very first attempt at sewing with leather and I'm not 100% confident in the integrity of the seams, so I'm taking it a little easy on movement and stretching. This is actually 'left-over' leather from the intended jeans (which are cut out but yet to be sewn) and was a really good learning exercise: stitch length, type of needle, speed of machine, how many layers I can actually sew through and generally all about how the fabric behaves (or not).

The skirt pattern is Vogue 1324 and maybe not the best choice for a first leather garment. There are no side seams but a triangular side inset, hence the seams lie towards the knees at the front and back. All seams are topstitched and there's an invisible zipper - ha ha ha - so the instructions say! It is a very fitted pencil skirt as you can see from the photo, whereas, mine is not.

Darts in leathers are a wee bit of fun. Sew as usual, then slice through the centre as far as is safe to do so, glue the flaps down and bash with a hammer instead of pressing the living daylights out of them. There's something rather rewarding bashing things with a hammer.

There was tiny cut in the leather which I only noticed after I had sewed the centre front to the side triangles, so it was patched with a piece of lining and more glue. It has held up remarkably well - so far. 

Detail of the topstitching and if you look very carefully, many skipped stitches. Apparently this is common when sewing with thicker leather and is remedied by hand stitching through the holes to grasp the thread into a stitch-like look.

This is my kind of hemming - glue and clothes pegs. Let set for 24 hours.

Finished article. You can't press the dart points flat, heat only stretches leather. DH (who knows everything) says the only way to 'press' the skirt is to wear it. It should take on my shape (dear help us all!) and the little bumps will smooth out with time. He says leather only gets better with age - like him!

No photographer this evening as he is at choir practice so I used the self timer in teenage son's bedroom. Some shots have my reflection in the mirrored wardrobe door for 360 viewing pleasure.

The zip was a real hassle. I did use an invisible one but inserted it more like a regular lapped zip. At the waistband there were just too many layers for the machine to cope with that I ended up sewing the top bit rather badly by hand. It's holding.

So the jeans are cut and rolled - don't fold leather - it creases, ready to be sewn.

I think I'll test drive the skirt first to judge the quality of the sewing before commencing on the jeans. I did not enjoy sewing with leather but this may be down to the pattern rather than the activity. 

Wearing it is even stranger. 

Hope your sewing activities are going well and even if I don't always comment, I'm always reading, keeping up to date and silently admiring from afar.