Met a guy at a ren faire who taught me more about leather stitching in 10 minutes than I learned in a year

I was at the Texas Ren Fest last month, watching a dude repair a belt on the spot. He was using a curved needle and some waxed thread. I asked him about his technique and he just handed me the needle and said "try it, you'll see the difference." He walked me through how he does saddle stitch with a single needle instead of two. Changed how I approach my book spines now. Has anyone else picked up a random trick from someone totally outside the trade?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_terry2d ago

Single needle saddle stitch? That blew my mind when I first saw it too. Old leatherworkers really have tricks that don't show up in any tutorial online. Never would have guessed a ren faire belt repair would change how I think about stitching.

josephf102d ago

Ren faire belt repair... seems like a lot of fuss over some thread.