Machine Embroidery on Leather

Interesting concept! I have several friends who have machine embroidered on leather and the items were absolutely gorgeous. So, what is my next experiment…..LOL. I have a pair of boots that has been screaming at me for some while to do something to them. Every time I would walk in my closet I would say to myself…one day. And today was that one day. I had talked with friends about how I would go about doing the embroidery and after various suggestions, tips (thank you guys) I decided I would use water soluble vilene in the hoop and on top of the boot. As for the design, I wanted something drastic, something unusual so I chose from my upcoming new collection, Myths and Dragons I design of the dragon from the PR/EMP collection. I wish there was some way for me to open the whole boot without having to restitch. I’m ambitious but not that ambitious, LOL. The dragon design is approximately 9″ long which would be perfect. The boot itself is a soft leather in black so the next important thing to consider was colors. I wanted it bright but yet not so bright so I chose the red/grey dragon from the collection. 

The reason I selected water soluble vilene for the  hooping is as the boot is quite pliable and molds to the leg, I didn’t want there to be a lump in the embroidery area especially when the boot would be worn. My next choice was using tearaway but as tearaway would make the embroidered area a bit stiff  with this leather I chose the vilene. It was an interesting moment when I set up the PR 600 as the needle bar would hit the heel of the boot until I realised that I can avoid that and use only the first needle which would leave room for the back of the needle bar to move.

The colors I chose were grey, red (even red eyes), gold, light baby blue (for the clouds) and black. My biggest worry was that the black would not show  up on the black leather but as you can see it worked out fine. While stitching I did notice that there was a lot of warping going on due to the weight of the boot in the stabilizer but there was nothing I could do then except hold onto the heel and keep it out of the way of the needlebar and pray that the warping won’t effect the stitching. It didn’t…whew! LOL. And the whole project worked out great. My only concern now is to change all the needles as I’m sure by now they are all shot. I usually never ever change needles until they break so maybe until the matching leather vest is finished I will keep them in the machine.

Stitching on leather is wonderful. I used all different types of threads and metallics. Except for one of the threads to break when stitching over the double seam I had no problems. I did not change the needles, my guess is that they are 14s. All I did was hoop the vilene, place the boot on top of it and cover the leather with another piece of vilene. I pinned the top layer of vilene to the bottom layer of vilene and avoided pinning through the leather. This sandwich method helped and I didn’t have any shifting.

My only regret that I could not stitch through the front of the boot where I would have liked the tail to come but nevertheless, the pair of boots is done and finished. I was going to stitch  some clouds on the other boot but decided it is best to leave one boot embroidered. There can be such a thing as too much embellishing. I do plan on placing very small crystals in the scales of the dragon on the boot.