When I cut my pattern pieces on leather I always try to cut the pieces exact. I found that when I do this my pieces do not line up perfectly and my edges often need to be sanded or even trimmed. Does anyone out there advocate for leaving a few millimeters of cutting tolerance when clicking out pattern pieces? After the pieces are glued and stacked together you can trim off the extra tolerance and achieve a very clean edge. does anyone else out there do this? Is it good practice?
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Hi,
I always place my patterns on the leather and then use weighted door stoppers on top (mostly in the center) to avoid movement of the patterns. This was a handy trick I learned in school. Then I put a metal ruler on the edges of the patterns and cut along the ruler edge. Make sure you have a sharp knife. This way I always have sharp and exact cuts, right to the milimetre! The leather pieces always come out as an exact copy of the pattern.
Adding on...
Having to overcut also makes the edges flushed, clean and free from any "contamination" from adhesives, dyes, and any other products applied. This makes it easier to prep for edge work, in my opinion.
I do this! It's called overcutting. I always do my patterns 5mm extra on every side.
I used to struggle with alignment before, specially that when hand cutting the pieces you never get two exact same sized pieces, and then i switched to overcutting and it changed the edge finish of my work forever!
But before overcutting a project, you need to practice a bit on the to be able to cut stacked piece without titling your blade so that you cut a perfectly straight cut.