I lost three days of work last week to migraines, which is hugely frustrating. It is also not entirely unexpected this time of year with the weather and pressure changes.
One of the consequences is that a lovely lamb hide that was half degrained sat in water for a bit longer than ideal. It was holey. But the thickness and the texture were lovely, and I had already put time in on it.
So here is a troubleshooting post on how to sew up holes in a wet stretched hide! With pictures!
This is the starting point to the repair. I cut the neck off at the right side of the picture because it was what we in the business call as complete mess. Nothing worth saving, and there would be no way to stretch it evenly.
Looking at what is here, this is a very small, very stretchy hide. I do not always sew up the holes in every hide, because it is time intensive and makes my fingers go numb. But with how thin and how springy this particular hide is, my concern is that the holes will either continue to tear under tension, or result in uneven stretch which could result in translucent areas.
These pictures show fluorescent green thread, because the off-white i generally use did not show up well. Normal sewing thread, two thicknesses, and a normal handsewing needle are all that I use, and I'm not picky about the needle.
Short lengths of thread are best in my experience. The abrasion of sewing through the wet hide will wear through longer sections.
Starting at one end, I use what is generally called flesh stitch to pull the edges of the hole together. This is similar to an overcast stitch, except the edges are next to each other instead of stacked. Always pierce the hide from front to back, bringing the needle back to the front of the opposite edge before going through the hide again. The needle path is a figure 8.
You can pull the edges together after every stitch. There is generally enough friction to keep stitches from loosening much afterwards.
This photo shows after the two holes on the left of the hide were sewn. The bottom was closed completely, with the edges brought together and even lapped a bit.
The top hole didn't want to close completely, and as the needle holes were already started to get larger under tension, I opted not to force it.
After this the hide was left to dry as normal. Update and next steps coming soon!
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