How To Sew Vinyl/Faux Leather With Minimal Crying

How to Sew Vinyl/Faux Leather with Minimal Crying

Faux leather, vinyl, and pvc (and faux fur) are some of my favorite materials to work with, but even with the right machine foot and needles you can still end up with, uh, this, when you try to top-stitch.

Nope, we don’t want that. Using just a basic machine, (I use a Brother LS-2125) an all-purpose needle, all-purpose thread, and an all-purpose foot, as well as a secret ingredient, nice clean stitches are possible! This is a quick tutorial for beginners without any fancy equipment.

Start by sewing your fabric right side to right side. (I’ve lined my material, but you can use this method for leather-to-leather as well) You’ll want to use a low tension, so the thread itself doesn’t stretch the fabric.

Always test a bit of scrap material before you start stitching, because each machine is a little different! Also use the widest stitch setting your machine has. This prevents excess perforation; the more perforated your faux leather or vinyl, the more likely it is to tear!

Turn your fabric inside out, and get ready to top-stitch! These kinds of materials are very difficult to iron, so you’ll have to use your fingers to smooth the edges as you’re sewing, rather than iron them. Ready for the secret ingredient?

A touch of Vaseline! With your finger, just touch the surface of your vaseline or petroleum jelly, then rub it down the edge of your material where the machine foot will pass over it. You don’t need much, so don’t make a mess!

That’s right, lube that sh*t up

Petroleum jelly is perfectly safe for vinyl and faux-leather, and I’ve found that it sort of disappears and doesn’t need to be wiped off, although you can use a damp sponge to remove any excess if you’d like. Just keep in mind that you shouldn’t touch other fabrics, which will absorb the vaseline, and you will need to clean your machine foot in the sink with a bit of dish-soap before you move on to another non-leather project. Other than that, congratulations! Your stitches (and you) are beautiful!

There are lots of other methods for working with faux-leather out there, as well as products specifically made for lubricating your machine foot to use over vinyl and pvc, but this has worked perfectly for me (in fact I didn’t cry at all this time!) and I hope it’ll help you make your leather dreams come true too!

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Feel free to add any other tips or information! ~Alina

Design Master Colortool spray paint adheres AMAZINGLY to faux leather! It's actually meant for live flowers, and it's incredibly flexible and vibrant. I used it to paint black boots for mettaton, so it should work for any other shoe, I would think

Thanks for the info! I hope that anon sees!

- Mod Sky

The Most Amazing Bucky Cosplay

That is not Sebastian Stan.

MOST…

…AMAZING…

…BUCKY…

…COSPLAY…

…EVER. 

Source: Orvie (www.instagram.com/radrupee/) as Bucky Barnes.

Sigh

Sooo I had to remake Josh's armor piece 4 days before the con.... Yeah 4 days. I went to attach the old ones and it just looked like ass and I couldn't accept that sooo I remade it. Currently waiting on plastidip to dry so I can paint the sumbitch. *facepalm*

That moment when...

Your cosplay that you've been working on for months is so close to being done but you don't want to actually get off your ass and finish it before your con in 9 days...

So hey guess what, you can just glue zippers into the seams of your foam pieces, it’s amazing.  Full tutorial here