dealing with leather

[Jacob Degan]

Does anyone have any recommendations for gluing (or otherwise attaching) leather to leather, or leather to fabric? The leather I'm using is too thick to sew onto the fabric, and in the leather to leather scenarios, there cannot be rivets or other such things visible on the two different custom-made non-standard Jedi belts I'm making.

I tried using some Tanner's Bond leathercraft cement on a different leather-to-leather project, and wasn't particularly impressed. I was also told that the Gorilla Glue I've seen in stores isn't actually all that great.

[Nova Darklighter]

I'll message a friend who used to work leather and see what he says. He's not a member, but hopefully will get back to me pretty quick. Try PMing Mon Jas Charin, he does leather stuff.

[Nova Darklighter]

Answer from my friend, he uses BARGE all purpose in Yellow can with Red lettering. Thin film on both sides then join.
Leather to fabric, he said fabric weave is usuallt to unstable to glue it, and he'd usually try to figure a way to sew it
Hope that helps.
A thought on sewing, maybe a local shoe repair can help you with that.

[ayanabashu]

Pre-drilling the holes in the leather allows any weight leather to be hand-sewn to fabric.

[rebelscum]

I do a lot of leatherwork and I always punch holes first before stitching the pieces together, especially with something as thick as a belt. Tandy Leather has a number of multi-prong punches that are designed for stitching. They allow you to keep the holes evenly spaced.

Home sewing machines can only handle lightweight leather and the heavy duty commercial ones can cost $1000 or more.

[JediKai]

Agreed. Punch holes and then stitch it together.

[Jacob Degan]

Even if it's hand-dyed hide leather? This is two pieces of leather that will probably be about 2" by 20" (for the shoulder pieces on my Zayne Carrck padawan robes), so that would take awhile...

Would it be feasible to attach snaps to the underside of the leather (perhaps first attaching the snaps to scrap cloth, so that the cloth could help hold the snap to the leather)? If nothing else, attaching the leather to the robes with snaps would make it easier to wash the costume.

This is what I'm making:
images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070920030115/starwars/images/6/61/ZayneCarrick-KotOR1.jpg

[rebelscum]

I punch holes in hand dyed leather all the time. Usually, the stitching covers any undyed portion that would be visible, but sometimes I have to touch up the dye job with a fine tipped brush.

Snaps are definitely an option for attaching leather to fabric. However, snaps designed for leather generally require you to punch a hole in the leather and the metal cap shows on the outside. One way to get around this is to attach the snap to a small piece of leather and then stitch this "medallion" to the underside of the main piece. On the other hand, if you use a fabric snap, you have to stitch it to the leather, but that's less work than stitching the whole thing.

Another option if you want to take the leather off for washing is to use velcro.

[Jacob Degan]

Ah, velcro! I'm gonna try that for those shoulder pieces, as it's the simplest, quickest solution and I don't have much time left before Celebration V. If that doesn't hold up, I can try putting some stitching in later when I have a lot more spare time.

I also found some "instant fabric & leather adhesive" at the local Jo-ann Fabric & Crafts, meant for outdoor/indoor use on repairing all sorts of things including furniture, clothing, and awnings to name just a few; it claims to be permanent, washproof and flexible. "Bish's Original Tear Mender" is what it's called - hopefully this will work better than the leather cement I tried before with my leather-to-leather project.

Thanks everyone for your advice!

[Nova Darklighter]

Try it on a scrap first and see what it does.

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

I have used some stuff I got from Tandy Leather called 'Leather Weld' for gluing pieces together. I've been very pleased with it, but always glue rough sides together for a good bond.

Barge glue is pretty heavy-duty and should work, but only use it outside or in well-ventilated places.

A good sewing machine can sew through up to about 3 ox leather, but only with a special leather needle.