No matter how much you study leather work processes, there still remains a need for developing new ones.
I mostly work with uncoloured leather, the colour is applied after a piece has been prepared and prior to polish. This method has its advantages, but recently I started laminating felt to the rough side. The felt was applied prior to colour and during the process the felt held colour pigment, this pigment contaminated the stitching staining the thread. A new process was now needed. It took some time but I finally developed one. End result clean stitching.
Laminating the felt to the underside requires using a glue, the colour of the glue is yellow and it shows through the felt in part causing a poor look. This is easily resolved be recolouring the felt, but as stated the felt holds the colour pigment. There is also a problem with the need to polish before stitching, this means that any polish left in the stitch groove or punch holes will also contaminate the stitches. The process I have developed is as follows;
Prepare the leather piece
Colour the piece
Laminate the leather and felt together
Lightly polish using clear wax polish
Touch up the felt using a permanent ink
Stitch the piece
Sounds simple I know and everything is once you know or work out the process.
