If you are new to leather sewing, you may be wondering if you can use a regular home sewing machine or if you need a walking foot sewing machine to sew leather. It is certainly a difficult question, but you can find the answer right here in this article.

There are three ways you can try sewing leather on a sewing machine, and only one of them involves the use of a walking foot sewing machine. Let’s look at each method:

1. Using a home machine: This is the cheapest way to sew leather if you already have a machine, at least at first glance. Unfortunately, if you use a cheap machine to sew leather; even light leather; something will give very soon and it probably won’t be the leather. Either it will bend or break or the motor will burn out. However, it is true that a heavy-duty home machine may well be able to sew light and medium-weight leather even without a walking foot. One clue to its suitability is if a machine is advertised as being able to sew multiple layers of denim or canvas. Such a machine, even if leather is not mentioned in the description, is quite likely to be robust enough to cope.
2. Using a universal walking foot attachment, for about twenty dollars you can buy a small foot and attach it to a home sewing machine. The same caveats apply here as in the previous method. The machine’s motor may not be as strong as a true heavy-duty machine and may simply lose control, or part of the machine may break or bend. However, if you have a heavy-duty sewing machine, attaching a foot to it is one way to ensure that the needle and feed mechanism are suitable for leather when the underlying machine mechanism is not, perhaps because the leather slips or the machine can’t do much. enough stitches. Personally, I wouldn’t want to sew anything other than lightweight leather on items like purses and bags with this type of setup.
3. Using a true walking foot sewing machine – This is the way to sew leather if you intend to do it often or if you need to sew heavier grades of leather. A true walking foot sewing machine is designed as a heavy-duty sewing machine and will happily go ahead and sew the heaviest of materials, whether it be denim, canvas, canvas or leather. What’s more, it will continue to do so without complaint for many years. It’s a great investment and if leather stitching plays a big part in your world then you might as well get the machine for the job if you can afford it. As well as being a good investment, it will also be a lot more fun to sew all those leather purses, bags, belts, and clothing on a machine that is really up to the task.

Keep in mind that whatever machine you sew leather with, you need proper leather needles (three-sided chisel point needles) and your machine needs to be able to make long stitches so it doesn’t tear the leather.