sewing pleather?

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Kuraihana
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Sep 18, 2008 7:32 pm

sewing pleather?

Post by Kuraihana » Thu Sep 18, 2008 7:42 pm

i've cosplyed for almost 2 years now....but ths will be my first attept at sewing pleather (plastic leather or fake leather).... any tips?

mrs.tomoe
Posts: 389
Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2004 4:58 am

Post by mrs.tomoe » Fri Sep 19, 2008 5:45 am

If it has a fabric backing, it'll sew just like regular material when you put the right sides together as you normally would to make a garment. If you need to do topstitching, invest in a Teflon foot or cover the bottom of your regular machine foot with a piece of Scotch tape --the frosty kind-- to prevent sticking. I also tape the edges of my machine bed where the fabric needs to pull across as you feed it through the machine so it doesn't get caught on those corners. Another non-stick technique involves lightly spraying the vinyl side with a silicone lubricant, but that's only good for shiny vinyl. It would mess up a matte finish.

Pleather/vinyl won't fray so you don't need to serge it (especially if you don't have a serger), but you should consider reinforcing some seams that get a lot of stress: shoulders, seat, hips. Just zigzag in the seam allowance of those areas after stitching the main seams to stabilize them.

Make a test of your outfit with cheap fabric to do fitting adjustments before going to your pleather. The needle holes don't go away from pleather so any adjustments on it could show up. This also means that you should pin only in the seam allowance when you're piecing things together. If you have stretch fabric, make sure to lay out your pattern to stretch correctly.

Have a good time!

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