Sewing Leather Goods by Hand or by Sewing Machine? Which is better?

What benefits come from sewing leather by hand and why do most companies prefer using sewing machines? 

Ever since I started Popov Leather, I've been all about sewing our goods by hand. And there are 2 very important reasons why:

• The superior strength and durability
• The beautiful look

This won't be a post about me being harsh on machine-sewn leather goods. They have a place and it's wholly dependent on what the customer ultimately wants. Whether it's the speed of production, cost of the final product, or a lifetime of use. 

Okay, maybe that was a little passive-aggressive. But let's dive in and see the differences.

Machine sewing leather isn’t bad. 

Or at least, it doesn’t have to be. In fact, machine sewing has one big advantage over hand sewing, and that’s speed. Therefore, machine sewing tends to be the default when it comes to manufacturing leather goods.

Ultimately it comes down to the compromises that each company is willing to make in producing their product.

With machine sewing, the company is almost always choosing to sacrifice some form of quality for the sake of speed.

Very often, thinner or cheaper threads will be used, which can lead to a less durable product. Even when a high-quality thread is chosen, machine sewing relies on what’s known as a lockstitch.

These saddlers needed a way to sew together thick pieces of leather. After all, saddles must be able to take a tremendous amount of wear. The last thing you need when you’re riding high on a 1,200-pound creature is for a flimsy stitch to pop in the wrong place.

For much of the history of saddlery, there were no sewing machines. 

Despite a century of experimentation starting in the mid-1700s, the first commercially viable sewing machine didn’t emerge until 1834. 

To this day the very best saddles are still hand sewn.

Hand sewing sacrifices speed for the sake of quality. It is time-consuming, and that’s part of its charm. 

Each time you pick up a hand-sewn piece of leather, you’re witnessing something of the person who made it. Yet it’s about more than simply clinging to traditions. There are tangible benefits to hand-sewing leather—and aesthetic ones as well.

That’s exactly why we continue to hand-sew our products.

All these elements—the techniques, the materials, and of course the skill of the craftsman— all work together to provide a superior stitch.

And just consider, if saddle-stitching is good enough for an actual saddle, think of what it can do for a wallet.

Hand-sewing (saddle-stitching in particular) provides the greatest strength and security when it comes to stitching materials together.

Imagine a line sewn with red and green thread, one on either side. Because of how saddle-stitching works, you would see the colors alternating along both sides of the leather (red, green, red, green, etc.) This is where the durability comes in. Even if one of those threads were to break, the remaining thread would continue to hold.

Meanwhile, machine-sewing doesn’t have this sort of backup.

Machine-sewn leather wallet on the left, hand-sewn leather wallet on the right.

Hand-sewn leather meanwhile has something that machine-sewn leather simply doesn’t.

Character.

The character of a hand-sewn piece of leather comes from the craftsman who stitch by stitch creates an appealing overlap between the threads. In fact, it’s one of the things which sets hand sewing apart.

A hand-sewn edge is a piece of functional art.

It doesn’t simply convey function. It also speaks to the aptitude of a craftsman who has worked hard through thousands upon thousands of stitches in order to hone a particular skill.

As humans, there’s something about that which speaks to us more clearly and more profoundly than exacting efficiency and speed ever could.

Machine-sewn items tend to have a straight stitch that continues along its path with little to no variation. Hand Sewn leather meanwhile will often have that pleasant overlap we mentioned earlier. It creates diagonals along the sewn edge. This comes from a subtle twist that is introduced when one thread overlaps the other as they move from stitch to stitch.

Of course, this can vary depending on the specific techniques and tools used to create the holes, which ties in nicely with the next point.

Machine-sewn leather wallet on the left, hand-sewn leather wallet on the right.

Hand sewn leather tends to have great variety in the sizes, shapes, and angles of the stitching holes, while machine sewn pieces tend to have little to no variation. What you’ll often see are simply small round holes, created from the needle piercing the leather. 

The most traditional tool for hand sewing leather is an awl, which creates a diamond-shaped hole. 

Also common are pricking irons which can add several holes at a time with a single tap of the mallet. These come in a variety of sizes and styles. Some have a flat row of teeth and others are more diagonal. 

In either case, they tend to produce narrow slits in the leather. You can get a still different—and rounder—look with something like the Korean-made Sinabroks hole punches (which is what we use).

It’s not that any of these are generally better than any other. It comes down to the aesthetic preferences of the craftsman and the needs of the piece being made. If for instance, you’re going to use a thicker thread, either for strength or a more robust aesthetic, you might benefit from having larger holes.

We don’t take shortcuts when it comes to quality. We want each piece that leaves the workshop to stand as a testament that craftsmanship is alive and well. While the rest of the world insists on “faster” and “cheaper”, we think in terms of “better” and “stronger”.

Every choice we make is done with the intention of producing the best work possible. This includes our decision to sew by hand, our choices in the thread, and the belief that newer doesn’t always mean better. 

You can get good work with machine stitching. 

The best work however requires something more patient—more deliberate.

That’s exactly why we give our work a more hands-on approach.