SEWING ON LEATHER

Which needle type is best for leather sewing?

Leather is a marvelous material and comes in many different thicknesses and colors. Sewing with leather is a very different experience than sewing with polyester or cotton material. Leather has more bite and gives more resistance when passing over your machine's feed dogs. It's important to use the right type of needles for leather. Different sewing applications will warrant specific needle styles and sizes.

Unlike other material, leather is commonly measured by the ounce. The thickness is gauged by a oz measurement. For example, a 4 oz piece of leather will be 1/16" thick. While an 8 oz piece of leather is 1/8" thick, and so on. The heavier the oz, the thicker the leather. Most upholstery leather material is no heavier than 12 oz. this is because French seams are commonly used to combine pieces of leather together. It's very difficult to try and sew heavy (thick) pieces of leather together because leather doesn't have a high elasticity percentage. The R point Groz-Beckert needle is a great needle for leather, as long as it is under 4 oz. The R point is considered "sharp" and can punch through materials of all types quite easily.

When stitching on thicker pieces of leather, we recommend using a cutting point needle. These needles are designated by the letters "DI", "S", "LR" "LL", and "D". A TRI point needle has a special shape and point which is exclusively designed to slice and penetrate material with little resistance. This detail makes any size within these needle styles a popular choice when embellishing or stitching on thicker leather.

We proudly distribute Groz-Beckert needles for leather sewing and stitching. These needles are high-quality and have a fantastic reputation for their strength and agility to sew well under high-speed and high-friction environments. If you're not sure what size or type of needle to use for your sewing project, don't worry. Groz-Beckert has created a fantastic needlepoint guide.

Thread quality will play a factor in obtaining even stitches. Using high-quality thread with high-quality needles and material will do more for a positive sewing experience than any machine adjustments.