Gail,I own Brisbane's only furrier firm Jackson Furs & so see this sort of job all the time. If you are a careful crafter, you should manage it and if after the sewing part, you aren't happy with the right side, send to us BEFORE the re-inforcing part because that's when its very hard to reverse an unhappy repair...er, and then it gets expensive.So, open the hem lining, turn the coat inside out up to the tear being completely visible to work on. I use fur hand-needles,a chisel/knife point to slice thru the skin/leather, a regular cloth needle will be very hard to push thru. We sell them $8 all sizes. Thread it with regular polyester thread, eg Gutermann, double strand, knot ends tog. Check the tear sits together, no bits missing. Start at one end pinching the skin upwards to you so pushing the hair down away from you ie out of the tear towards the right side, I like to begin from right to left, secure thread at start & begin to push the hair down to right side using the needle point & shaft so you can create a clean pinched up seam with BLANKET stitch. This gives you more of an overlocked closure than overcasting. If the skins are too brittle, they will tear again easily as you sew. This is fairly disastrous. We get these jobs and we still sew them first before the glue...very gently. At this point, see how the sewing is performing. If all good, and right side is neat, you are fine to proceed with a swipe of KwikGrip over the blanket stitch area and a corresponding size scrap of leather, bond tog after 5 mins & let dry 24hrs. This re-inforcing part shouldn't be done if you are at all unhappy with the first sewing tog part from the right side or if it tears away whilst you're stitching the skins. Approach us at any point that you feel its getting out of control, you can ring or web us at the business name. not allowed to say the business contact here...:) we're happy to help at any point. Cheryl. Jackson Furs
Cheryl, July 2009
