THIS is Hand Made - The final Stitching

A few posts back I showed you the pre-work on the leather to get it to the stage ready for the final hand stitching.

Now it's bent almost like a memory bend, ready for the D ring and the pre-punched holes to be aligned ready for stitching.

The stitching is done freehand, the fob is too small to rest it in the stitching pony. So out comes an old sweatshirt to protect the leather from getting marked up on the table and the saddle stitching starts.
Ok so a saddle stitch is as the name suggests, strong and more secure than a machine stitch that uses the bottom thread as part of the lock. (A saddle stitch uses one long piece of thread with a needle at each end). It's described much better elsewhere! What you see above is from the right the needle has already passed through the hole exiting left out of shot. Then the left side thread & needle is passed through the same hole and pulled taught.
All my linen thread is given extra bite in the leather securing the stitch by waxing the thread.
In a few months I'm really looking forward to trying out some UK beeswax from some hives kept on a farm. The wax will be coming to me straight from the bees hive's and I can't wait to try it out.

Each time I pass the 2 needles through the hole the threads get wrapped around my finger in a way that no doubt each leatherworker does in their own way to then pull the two threads giving an even pull on both sides to strengthen the stitch in the leather.

The stitch starts and makes the horizontal stitch under the D ring and continues all the way round to meet the other initial starting corner. I then basically back stitch it all the way along and over the first horizontal line to finish off the securing stitch.
And there you have it, a lot of work for sure, but a one off.