Last month I shared a bit about the leather western show jacket project I have been working on. Since I have now completed the jacket, Rodeo Queen, I wanted to backtrack a little to discuss cutting the appliqués from leather.

Leather is a stretchy material that comes in many different weights and thickness. Leather is classified by the weight quoted in ounces (oz). It can also be identified by the finish, tanning process and suppleness. For this project I worked with garment grade leather, specifically a 1.5 – 2 oz metallic foiled pig suede. As a reference, a 2 oz leather is about the same thickness as a dollar bill folded 3 times.

Like fabric, it needs to be properly stabilized for a successful cut on our machines. You can stabilize by applying a fusible product to the back or unfinished side, or by ironing on a heavy duty freezer paper. You can also cut the leather bare if you use a very sticky mat. The issue with just using the sticky mat is that the rough side of the leather will leave fibers behind when removed from the mat. It is also possible to stretch the cut unit out of shape if not removed very carefully.

Best results are achieved when using the Fabric Blade and the Extra Sticky Mat (Green Grid). For this project, the two colors of leather were slightly different thicknesses so I needed to adjust my blade exposure for each color.

Maxx Air Settings

Metallic Pig Suede

Pink, 2 oz: Force = 168, Speed = 250, Passes = 2, Blade Height = 13

Silver, 1.5 oz: Force = 160, Speed = 250, Passes = 2, Blade Height = 13

Materials

Metallic Pig Suede

Paper backed fusible web, paper was removed before pressing the leather on to the mat.

Fabric Blade

Extra Sticky Mat (Green Grid)

The use of my KNK Maxx Air allowed me to cut seventy of the delicate units, some as small as ½” to ¼” wide in one day!