Hand Stitching or Machine Stitching: The Thread and the ‘Exacting’ Standard at the Stops

Occasionally at the workshop, I hear people passing around a belief: “You should choose hand stitching because machine stitching unravels the whole length if just one stitch breaks!”

In fact, if you’ve worked with leather long enough, you’ll know that… isn’t entirely true.

A bit of fairness to machine stitching

Thread breaking and pulling out the whole line only happens when sewing on thin fabric. With real leather, the material inherently has a certain thickness. This thickness, combined with the high friction of leather and quality linen thread, holds the thread very firmly in place.

To be fair: machine stitching on real leather is perfectly durable for everyday use, and doesn’t unravel as easily as the rumor suggests.

So if machine stitching is durable enough, why do I still choose to sit down and punch holes to hand stitch every product?

The difference lies in… the stops

The problem with machine stitching isn’t durability — it’s the lack of control at the end points of the seam and at corner turns.

When machine stitching, the needle follows a mechanical rhythm. Running along a straight line is very smooth, but when approaching a right angle, you cannot predict with 100% certainty exactly where the last needle will land. As a result, when you turn the product to sew the perpendicular line, the new starting point often doesn’t fall in the ideal position — causing the stitches at the corner to bunch, shift, or fall slightly short.

Absolute calculation from pattern design

With hand punching and stitching, everything is controlled before the punch even touches the leather:

• The dimensions of the wallet and every small detail are calculated mathematically right from the pattern design stage, based on the exact punch (pitch specification) to be used.
• As a result, from the first punch to the last before turning the corner, every punched hole falls exactly in its predetermined position.

The balance at right-angle stops therefore reaches absolute precision, with no element of “chance” or forcing whatsoever.

Meticulousness leaves no room for “chance”

A sewing machine finishes a product quickly, evenly, and very durably.

Choosing to punch and hand stitch is a decision of “being particular”: accepting spending many times longer just to ensure that, from the pattern drawing on the machine to the last punch at the corner edge of the wallet, everything stays within precise, millimeter-level control.

Handcraft doesn’t need to be deified. Sometimes, its value lies simply in the integrity and meticulousness that extends to the very last stitch — something you quietly feel every time you hold the piece in your hands.