I've been into leathercrafting since three years now and I still have problems getting angles on the backside sometimes. I've watches the beginners course already just to see if I've a bad habit somewhere but I do it excactly like shown there.
I wonder if the thinkness of the leather has an impact. In all videos explaning the saddle stich a rather think leather is used. If I use think leather or two pieces of leather to stich together I manage the angle on the backside. But if I use thinner leather like in my current project (1,2mm calf leather with 0,5-0,8mm lamb leather lining) I cant manage to get the angle on the backside even with the cast. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?
In my opinion, you are doing nothing wrong. You have acceptable angles on the back. The back angles will always look less angled than the front ones. That is normal.
I also think you need to practice a bit more your consistency of hand movement and pull. In stitching N1, there are two stitches (no 8 and 9 starting from the right) that indicate that the needles did not pass each other in the same position as the rest, which gives you 2 slightly elevated and flattened stitches.
On the other hand, 3.85mm paired with 0.4mm thread is not optimal. I would try to stitch with at least 0.6mm and i think you will find better results.
Yes, as Fadi suggests, we need more information here, ideally a photo of both sides if you can.
Hello hello,
you are doing nothing wrong. Like you said, thickness of leather and spi play a huge part in angles. The thinner the leather, the smaller the spi should be and the smaller the thread, and the less angle you will get.
In some instances, it would be better to forgo the cast completly to end up with nice angles only on one side (the front) instead of an inconsistant mess on both sides. I personally never cast when stitching below 1.3mm thickness. I also never cast if the other side is not really visible.
Also, the stifness of the leather plays a part. The softer the leather, the harder to get angles.
On your project, 1.2mm + 0.65mm (on average) should get you around 1.8 to 1.9mm, you should have acceptable angles on the back. What spi are you using paired with what thread size?
As an example, the top edge of the below pouch is a folded edge, so roughly 1.5mm thickness. I did not cast because I would never have been able to obtain such crisp angles if I had casted. And the backstitch is only visible if you open the pouch and bring it to eye level and like look at the stitches. So, here I decided to sacrifice the interior to obtain a better exterior.