FRENCH EDGE STITCHING

French-edge stitching is a unique sewing technique that sews two pieces of rigid material (typically thick leather) at a 90˚ angle to secure edges. William Wordsworth once said, “Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present to live better in the future.” Unfortunately, in our industry we find many of the skills and techniques of the “old-days” have been lost to the modern world. Just as George Santayana put it, “progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness…”.

Corner stitching, also known as “French-edge” stitching is one of these lost arts. In the bag, luggage, and sporting goods business, many articles are held together by stitching at the edges or corners. In the past, makers of these products were required to do the stitching by hand. Many of today’s leather crafters have spent hours doing the same, unaware of a machine that can instead stitch this work for them over the past 100 years. French-edge Stitching is commonly applied to the cornered edge of rugged leather cases and products.