Sewing and Finishing Tops and Panels

Panel - in process of edge slicking

Edge Slicking:
Once the tops and panels are tooled the next step is to bevel and slick the edges.  Slicking supplies
consist of a bar of saddle soap, a swatch of canvas, and a piece of sheep skin.  There are more high-tech tools that others might use to slick but the way I was taught is what I will show and talk about here.  Basically you need a lot of elbow grease in this process.   First I rub a little saddle soap on the leather, wet the edge just slightly with the sheep skin, and rub as fast as I can on the edge with the canvas.  For a finished product it is necessary to slick edges in this type of leather work. 

Edge Slicking Tools

Sewing:
Sewing any material becomes a whole lot easier if you have the right machine. We have three leather sewing machines now, but at this point I really only use one of the three.  When we first started leather working we purchased an old Singer sewing machine that is very cool to look at but it is not very easy to sew and get a
nice looking stitch with that machine.  I did sew my first saddle skirts with that machine so I can't say all bad
things about it.  The second machine we bought is an Adler which is mostly for sewing lighter leather like chaps and chinks, not saddle skirts.  The main biff I have with the Adler is it is increadibly hard to sew at a slow pace, and slow sewing is what I need at least for now.  That brings me to the best sewing machine I have sewn on yet.  Our newest machine the Artisan. There is hardly a need to adjust string tension -- ever, and it will slow at a snails pace if that is what is wanted or a fairly fast pace with the same quality of stitching.  I never though a sewing machine could make me happy but this one deffinatly does.
I glued some on the tops to keep them in place while being tacked down and then sewn. I use small tacks that are pulled out with needle nose pliers while I stich along.  The sewing machine mostly does the work, I just keep the needle in the stich grove. 

Sewing and trimming all finished

After sewing, need to trim and burn strings

Back side of Chinks, Backing on top.

Tops and fringe on chinks

Trimming and burning strings:
After all the tops and pannels were sewn on I used my edgers to trim the excess chap leather to match the tooling leather on the tops.  I used chap leather for a backing of the tops and so the back side needed trimed as well. 
Strings are pulled through to the back side of the chaps and then Cut short and burned to melt them together.

Now I'm ready to do some hole punching and all the finishing touches.