-st-leather

We all know what that is.

Most people associate stuff from China to be of inferior quality. That is not China’s fault! Some of the most beautiful art and craft pieces comes from China.

So why do we view stuff from China as inferior?

Because we, the consumers, want cheap stuff!

China produce goods according to price. The more you are willing to pay, the better the quality. 90% of us wants cheap and cheap we shall get!

The whole market is flooded with cheap bags from China. Cheap PVC leather that does not pretent to be leather. Sewing that is so bad you can see it from miles away. Quality that last for a fortnight.

Yet…….. they are selling like hot cakes. I guess more people need retail therapy now.

This label is on almost all item coming out of China!

I have been working with a lot of old leather product from UK and US and none of them have this stamped anywhere on the leather. I don’t stamp it on my products as well. There is no need for it. Is there?

It worries me to think that people have to be told that the product they are buying is made from “Genuine Leather”. Granted, the “Genuine Fake Leather” looks as good as the “Genuine Leather”. No one can tell the different anymore.

Here’s the experience when you go to buy……. lets say a wallet. You walk into the store and start looking at the wallets. Pick one up and ask the sales person the price and they will then show you the stamp “Genuine Leather”, light a lighter and showly run the flame over the surface of the “Genuine Leather” and only then they will tell you the price and say it’s expensive because it’s “Genuine Leather”. What does that little demonstration tells you? Absolutely nothing. The way they ran the flame over the surface wouldn’t burn your skin let alone the “Genuine Leather”. The bad news is, fire does damage the leather as it does the fake stuff. The “Genuine Leather” stamp can be applied to anything that is non leather or leather by-products.

Reconstituted leather is “Genuine Leather”?????? It is made from leather. More specifically, it’s made from small bits and pieces of leather that have been ground up and made into a sheet again by using adhersives.

Worst of the “Genuine Leather” is on items that is not leather at all! The majority cannot tell the difference between leather and PVC?

This is sad………………………..

This is the largest item I have made. I still couldn’t believe how much leather went into this bag and it’s not even a full leather bag!

The main material is canvas. The leather is used to trim it. All the sewing is done using a sewing machine. Not a fancy industrial machine but the average home sewing machine. The only changes you need to do to the machine is change the needle to a 18/110, use a #30 thread and set the tension of the thread higher.

I have started a new blog to list some of the items I have for sales and also to make it easier for my customers to find out about my products. A more structured blog to sell my items if you may.

The URL for the blog is

http://singteck.blog.com 

I’ve bought zippers for my leather work a long time ago but everytime I take them out, I put them back again. It’s just too intimidation trying to sew it to the leather. I’ve been trying to do a project with zipper since 2003!

Fast forward to 2008 and I have finally used one. It’s a simple project but it did showed me that it was really very easy. I think it’s the initial fear or the uncertainty that keeps me from doing it but after this, I have no fear of it any more.

When you make product for the upper end of the market, you have to finish the product to the highest standard. I’ve always used leather to line the inside of my product if lining is required. That the most expensive method. Another acceptable method is to line it with fabric. This is much cheaper but looks just as good. It does not last as long as leather lining because it will delaminate earlier and gets dusty after a while. Sometimes fabric would be a better choice compared to leather for certain application.

I love a good hand stitched leather product and I am proud of my hand stitching. There is nothing that says quality louder then a beautifully hand stitched leather product.

However, having worked with soft leather, I now think that machine sewing is the only way to go! They produce a much nicer stitch because the tension is more uniform. You still can hand stitch soft leather using fine thread like 25/3 linen thread but you have to make sure you don’t pull the thread too tight. If you did, you will deform the leather and mess up the whole project.