Hand Sewing Leather – 30 tools & supplies you (may or may not) need to buy to get started

Of all the sewing jobs around, one of the hardest is sewing leather – especially hand sewing it. The toughest among us attempt it and emerge a winner. A few ammunition at our side do help to win the battle.

Related post : How to hand sew leather with the best stitches.

Here is a list of those tools that the leather hand sewing beginner would want to have to become a leather sewing expert. Or maybe at least – to start sewing.

The basic hand sewing leather tools 

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1. Good quality leather

This goes without saying but a beginner can get lost in the world of leather. There are many different types of leather – you can learn more about the many kinds of leather available for your projects here.

You can use scrap leather for your first projects and experiments and then go on to buy vegetable-tanned leather for your subsequent projects.

A 2 mm (3 ounce) is needed for outer work (making wallets, backpacks etc) and carving purposes and 1 mm is used for inner work.

Super soft and lightweight leather is most preferred for making handbags – it is easy to sew and soft to touch.

7 to 8 ounce (2.8- 3.4 mm) thick leather is used for making belts.

Buy pre-dyed leather if you are a beginner and would rather not bother about the dyeing processes. They are tooled and hand dyed and finished with a stain.

If you want to dye your own leather buy pre-dyed tooling leather. The finishing and type of tanning done can make or break leather so it is better to buy pre-dyed leather if you are a beginner in leather projects

2. Needles

You will need two good sharp thick hand sewing needles with a big eye to hand sew leather.

There are Leather needles which make holes as they sew – they are needles (also called Glovers) with a  sharp tip shaped like a triangle for cutting into thick leather, without tearing the material. These come in sizes 1 to 8.

Leather needles with longer triangular point at the end are called sailmakers needles

And you will also find other types of hand stitching and embroidery needles like the long upholstery needle and curved needle handy for some of the projects. 

3.Thread

You can hand sew leather with any heavy weight sewing thread – Linen thread is recommended by many experts for hand sewing leather. You can also ask the store for polyester upholstery weight thread or bonded nylon thread. But the pre-waxed leather sewing thread makes your life easy. The pre waxed nylon thread is good enough for most jobs.

If you are using ordinary sewing thread rub a little bit of beeswax on it make it strong enough and reduces tangling. Cotton thread is not usually used by the experts as it may disintegrate easily. A synthetic thread with a diameter upwards of 0.6 mm can be used.

The pre-waxed thread for hand sewing leather comes in many thicknesses and types – You get Linen Thread and Polyester Thread for hand sewing. You have to choose depending on your project.

4. Diamond Awl

This is used to make holes on the leather before you start sewing. You get them in many sizes. 

5. Rulers

The long metal ones, as well as transparent rulers, are used to mark the stitching lines on leather.

6. Good Quality sharp scissors

Self-explanatory – what is sewing without a good pair of scissors.

7. Clips

As you already know you cannot use pins or basting stitches on leather- instead you can use binder clips to hold leather pieces together. You can even use (wooden) cloth pegs for thin soft leather. There are other shortcuts like using masking tapes, using stapler pins on the seam allowances where that is applicable etc.

8. Glue

You can buy shoe glue or leather glue. This is needed for attaching things before sewing them permanently. 

9. Rotary cutter or cutters

Leather is best cut with a very sharp cutting tool; Cutting straight cuts, rounder corners properly is best done with a thin and sharp cutting tool. Even skiving is done with a good one. You can buy a head-knife or a leather trimming-knife. You can also use a rotary cutter or a general utility-knife (sometimes called a Stanley-knife).  

You can even use a really sharp X-Acto-Blade- just ensure that it has disposable-blades because you need them really sharp to cut through leather.

10. Cutting Mat 

If you are cutting with a rotary cutter or exacto-blade you need to protect the cutting surface with a mat – you can use boards or rubber mats.

Other useful leather sewing tools

11. Thimble

Thimble or finger-gloves can protect your hands from the sharp points /edges of all your leather sewing tools. You may not think this is necessary till you get that first jab/cut.( and many more to come if you will be pursuing this hobby)

12. A stitching pony / Stitching clam

Though the names sound frivolous the jobs they do, are not – they hold the leather pieces together and make your sewing less frustrating. Once you use one of them you may decide you will not sew without them. 

13. A drawing wheel

A drawing wheel/overstitch wheel makes dotted marking on fabric – these even markings are then converted to holes through which stitching is done

14. Sewing Hook Awl

This is used for sewing leather instead of using the needles. You can sew with this awl which has a hook on its eye to carry the thread.

15. Rivets and Rivet setting tools

Rivets are used as an alternative to sewing to attach two pieces of leather together. 

Some optional leather sewing tools

16. Hole punch

You will need to make even looking perfect holes on leather goods like belts, bags and this tool is really helpful in that.

17. Edge paint

The edges of leather pieces will have to be painted with edge paint for a finished look.

18. Beeswax

Beeswax is used to shine leather and to grease the sewing thread

19. Adjustable groover

This is used to create stitching lines /decorative grooves/lines on leather surface.

20. Sand paper

You can use sand paper to sand the leather cut edges to a good finish. If you want a more professional and easy tool you can use an electric sander.

More advanced/optional tools in leather making by hand

21. Leather skiving-knife

Skiving the leather is not for the fainthearted – it involves thinning out your perfect looking leather piece to a lesser thickness  – it is done to make the leather more supple or sometimes to lessen the bulk at the seams. You need the sharpest of tools for this – the specialized tool for skiving comes with disposable- blades. You can buy these, diagonally shaped, curved and combination of diagonal and curved.

22. Edge beveler

This is another skiving tool used to trim the edges.

23. Wool Daubers

These are used to apply leather dye/ stain or lubricant; You can also use them to polish leather to a good shine.

24. Burnisher

Burnishing is a finishing done to the edge of the leather – it can make your work look very professional. Burnishing means polishing in its basic sense. The tool for doing this a very convenient way of doing the polishing. 

25. Prong punch