Fix a hole or stitching on leather shoes or sandals - PEP BB textiles.straw.repair.shoes

My nice Softstar Merry Jane shoes had come unstitched! So, I stopped by the local craft store and bought the only awl and leather working needles they had, and got to work!

This is my first time ever sewing leather! I used the saddle stitch method shown in the first post of this thread.

Now for pictures!

I see a new 'approved' sign! Great! Will they all be like that from now on?

That's what we're working on, Inge! And, eventually, the badges in you signature will link the post where you earned that badge! And, hopefully soon we'll have it so anyone who has earned a Sand badge can approve sand BBs in that field!

One of my growing-up experiences: I used to get my father to stitch my moccasins when they came undone. One day I asked him to sew one up. He said,”Do it yourself. You know how to use an awl.”

The upper of my work shoes started detatching from the sole - the sole is unfortunately not leather, but the upper is, so I hope that still counts! I used an awl to pierce holes in the sole and the upper and a cotton/wool blend thread (not sure the exact percentage of either, but it's strong) on a curved needle to whipstitch the upper back to the sole. It's holding up fine so far!

I repaired the heel straps on a pair of hand-me-down leather sandals! I used thick cotton thread, beeswax, two needles, scissors, and pliers. I back-stitched the broken thread ends as best I could, and replaced the broken stitches with a saddle stitch. I have my good walking sandals again!

I've got a pair of boots that should have plenty of life yet in them, but the stitching was coming undone in one spot.  So I decided to try my hand at repairing it.  Initially I tried making my own stitching awl similar to the first video in this wiki.  I'll have to revisit that at some point since what I made didn't work well.  It was too thin and I failed to get the edges smooth enough.  So I still had to punch initial holes with another awl, then when pulling the tread through my sharp edges kept cutting the tread fibers.  

I wasn't particularly in the mood at that point to remake my stitching awl so I looked at the tools I did have in front of me and asked myself how could I make this work?  In the end my approach was similar to the second and third videos using a "speedy stitcher" type stitching awl except I was using a non-speedy approach.  I would first punch my hole with a regular awl then I had the thread on a harness needle and would poke the eye of the needle through that hole I just made.  Once inside the boot I'd pull back a bit as the videos showed, making a small loop which I could feed the interior thread end through.  I used to do some book binding work and this general approach is quite similar to how I would stitch books.

At any rate, while getting/making better tools will certainly help speed this up for future repairs it all worked quite well.  I am very happy to have finally delved into this skill/craft.  I have long been thinking that I want to learn to make my own shoes/boots some day.  While this is but a wee baby step in that direction it did finally get me started in leatherworking.  

I finally got my new stitching awl in the mail! Now I can repair my hubby's boots. I like working with this little tool! I'm going to have to start tanning hides to get into leatherwork, I think. Anyways, here's the boot I fixed. It's a seam that's opening along the arch.

The stitching on my right shoe broke, another BB falling into my lap
I used the saddle stitch to repair it. First, I tried using waxed thread, but my needles kept breaking so I did a fall back to cotton thread. I need stronger needles :p

These shoes have a fancy waterproof layer somewhere hidden inside, I'm aware that I most likely punched through it with the needle, but I decided that it doesn't matter because I prefer 100% closed shoes over 100% waterproof shoes. All year around there are spiky plants and animals, and it rains about 10 times a year... Easy choices

In case you didn't know there is another BB for doing leather maintenance on shoes/boots with stuff about how to renew waterproofing on boots!

Thank you for the tip, David, I have the documentation for the leather maintenance BB ready to upload soon, but for another pair of shoes
I have never conditioned the shoes I used for this BB, because I've heard that 'one shouldn't condition shoes that have the fancy waterproof layer in them'. I do not know whether that is true or not..