Sometimes, when making a bag or other leather item that needs support, you may feel stuck. How do you interface it? Gluing timtex or similar can be unwieldy. Well, have no fear. You can use good ol' fusible interfacing, as long as you work carefully.
Use a silk organza press cloth and a heat setting somewhere between wool and cotton. Press down (not too hard) for 10 seconds and voila! It's fused, and it gives just the right firmness without bulk.
Moral of the story is, Go for it! Test first, of course, but I tried fusing succesfully on cowhide, lambskin, pearl finish, metal finish, plain finish and suede, and I got good results on all of them. |
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Brilliant, Ann! Thanks for sharing your "lightbulb". Cute purse, BTW.
8/27/05 1:27 AM
Thanks for sharing this. Test, test and test I will do.
8/27/05 8:38 AM
Wow, Ann, great info! Thanks to you and your friend sew much for thinking, testing, reporting and sharing this here. It sure does help, no doubt!
8/27/05 10:08 AM
Ann, good tip, with all the purse sewing I know we PR people do ... Kathleen Fasanella mentioned this in one of her blog posts several weeks, but didn't give temp or pressing details, and I haven't yet got around to asking her. Now I don't have to -- Thanks!
8/27/05 3:06 PM
Thanks for sharing this. I would never have considered fusing leather! I will take another look at my purse patterns.
8/28/05 5:17 AM
I think the light bulb must have gone off in my head at the same moment! ealier oday I fused some interfacing onto the back of a leather strap because I didn't want it to stretch so much. The onlyl thing I noticed is that the skin retained heat much longer than fabric would.
8/28/05 7:59 PM
Hey Gorgeous, I have just made my first and second leather jackets and it never occured to me that you couldn't fuse leather. I use Italian Lambskin that is just beuatiful, but my first jacket (black of course) I used fusible weft, and it was a little softer than I liked. On my second jacket I actually used fusible haircanvas which I at first thought was too stiff, now that I am wearing it, I wouldn't use anything else
9/18/05 6:00 PM
Great review! I purchased a pelt at the Chantilly Sewing Expo - my first leather. I've been looking at it and finally started a purse last night. I fuse my pockets for stability - but wasn't sure about leather. Clair Shaffaer's book says no. But I did a scrap - and, as it turns out, Yes! Your review lets me know that I can now go with wild abandon!! Thanx! Vera
10/31/05 8:43 AM
You know how you read a tip and then say, that's interesting, but I don't think I will ever use it? This was one of those tips. Guess what? My son asked me to make a leather case for his magical coins and I need to know this now. I'm so glad that it is here. Thanks, Ann.
12/18/05 3:32 PM
I was very interested in the fact that you were able to fuse interfacing to the leather. I was thinking about doing this and I have some extra heavy stablizer and some stitch witchery. Do you think that would work? What is timetex? Is it a fuseable interfaceing? Please let me know what your thoughts are on this? I'm new to sewing. Bartley
1/8/06 9:59 AM
could you do this if you putin a zipper in a leather jacket?
11/16/11 11:53 AM