I am planning to build a mission sofa this winter. I would like to use
leather for the cushions. I would appreciate any comments about
working with leather, but particularly any recommendations for sources
of leather. There are a lot of sources on the web, but I don't know
which are trustworthy. I also don't know anything about leather
quality, dyeing, etc. Thanks for your help.

Bill Ray

Bill,

I used leather for a hall tree cushion, and I call some upolstry
shops and found one that did leather upolstry. They had whole hides
in a ton of colors, and was able to get a few square feet. It ain't
free! Wives who sew are a great source of info in making cushions,
they say it's not hard with a sewing machine. Goodwill, St Vintys,
or a thrift store might be a good source for a "test" cushion to get a
pattern, and see construction details.

Hope this helps.....

Thank you. I've already "assigned" my wife the cushion duties. I have
a set of plans that even have the details on how to construct the
cushions.


On Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:38:18 -0700 (PDT), rich
wrote:

Bill,

I used leather for a hall tree cushion, and I call some upolstry
shops and found one that did leather upolstry. They had whole hides
in a ton of colors, and was able to get a few square feet. It ain't
free! Wives who sew are a great source of info in making cushions,
they say it's not hard with a sewing machine. Goodwill, St Vintys,
or a thrift store might be a good source for a "test" cushion to get a
pattern, and see construction details.

Hope this helps.....

On Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:25:06 -0500, Sam Fertel
wrote:

I am planning to build a mission sofa this winter. I would like to use
leather for the cushions. I would appreciate any comments about
working with leather, but particularly any recommendations for sources
of leather. There are a lot of sources on the web, but I don't know
which are trustworthy. I also don't know anything about leather
quality, dyeing, etc. Thanks for your help.

Bill Ray

I haven' t used them lately, but Tandy Leather has been around for a
long time and always had an excellent reputation.

Bill

"Bill" wrote in message
I haven' t used them lately, but Tandy Leather has been around for a
long time and always had an excellent reputation.

They're still around, I buy from them once in awhile. In Canada, they're
called Tandy Leather Factory.
http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/ . Not sure what they're called in the
US, but I do know they're still in business.

"Bill" wrote in message

I haven' t used them lately, but Tandy Leather has been around for a
long time and always had an excellent reputation.

http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/Locations.asp

On Aug 28, 9:25*pm, Sam Fertel wrote:
I am planning to build a mission sofa this winter. I would like to use
leather for the cushions. I would appreciate any comments about
working with leather, but particularly any recommendations for sources
of leather. There are a lot of sources on the web, but I don't know
which are trustworthy. I also don't know anything about leather
quality, dyeing, etc. Thanks for your help.

Not sure where you're located, but I used to buy from Veteran Leather
in LIC, NY.
http://www.macraesbluebook.com/searc...company=503884
The bluebook listing doesn't seem to show hides, and their web site is
messed up with broken links, but the guys know their stuff and the
prices were reasonable. Give them a call and ask for them to send you
some samples of whatever leather they'd recommend for cushions.
Pigskin would be nice - supple, strong and attractive, but it's not in
keeping with the Mission style of furniture and I don't know how much
of a purist you are.

R