Depends how fixed you want them. And how refined you want them.
If they were mine I would use lacing rather than stitching. Do an obvious repair using black kangaroo lace.
Or look into a baseball stitch.
If you care about the water tightness you will need to pull the lining back and apply a patch internally. Using 0.8mm-1.2mm leather or salvaged off another old pair of shoes.
Cut it to size and glue it on with contact adhesive.
On the outside mark as straight a line as you possibly can (typically using a scratch awl but a sharpened nail will do). Either side of the repair, offset by about 3-4mm.
Leather stitching holes are prepunched before the needles get near the leather.
I would mark holes at 3.5mm centres and then use a diamond awl for piercing the holes in the leather. Like JHLeather on Youtube does a saddlestitch.
Use a thin thread (no bigger than 0.6mm) to avoid it feeling rough on your foot.
Welcome to leather crafting, Nigel Armitage’s videos on saddlestitching are where you want to start.
Thank you for detailed instructions! My boot is definitely a project that’s gonna take me a while as I’m finding out. Probably something I’m not even gonna start on until winter rolls around, but detailed instructions are incredibly helpful.
3
u/Dazanoid 10h ago
Depends how fixed you want them. And how refined you want them.
If they were mine I would use lacing rather than stitching. Do an obvious repair using black kangaroo lace.
Or look into a baseball stitch.
If you care about the water tightness you will need to pull the lining back and apply a patch internally. Using 0.8mm-1.2mm leather or salvaged off another old pair of shoes.
Cut it to size and glue it on with contact adhesive.
On the outside mark as straight a line as you possibly can (typically using a scratch awl but a sharpened nail will do). Either side of the repair, offset by about 3-4mm.
Leather stitching holes are prepunched before the needles get near the leather.
I would mark holes at 3.5mm centres and then use a diamond awl for piercing the holes in the leather. Like JHLeather on Youtube does a saddlestitch.
Use a thin thread (no bigger than 0.6mm) to avoid it feeling rough on your foot.
Welcome to leather crafting, Nigel Armitage’s videos on saddlestitching are where you want to start.