How much leather to make chaps

I really liked some stuff I found from Water House Leather , but it's only 15 sq. Would that not be enough? As long as I don't cut two legs that is! Make your pattern one for each leg right and left. Then write left and right on the patterns. That way you can move them around on your side to make sure both will fit.

I don't think you will be able to get a pair out of 15 square foot and if you do one leg is going to be way down in the belly. Ask the folks at Waterhouse and see if they have anything bigger or look around and see what you can come up with. For style 34 you are going to need a pretty good size side. I'd say at least 24 sq ft. Because Your 38" leg will take a lot of material.

Plus you are making step-in's and will need quite a bit of material for wrapping around the leg. Think, a pair of pants. Dwights suggestion was right on target. It is a very cheap way to figure out what you are doing. Now days I just take measurements and lay them out on a card stock bought from Office Depot to make my patterns. If you make enough pairs you will soon see how much leather you need just by looking at your card stock pattern.

Thanks so much everyone! It sounds like I will need a side then. Any recommendations of a good place to get cheap sides? By the way, would a side be enough to put some fringe on them as well? Also, what is your preferred thickness for chaps?

I don't want a super heavy pair, but I also don't want them to be thin. I was thinking maybe oz? I know this is not the style you wanted,.

I made these a couple of years ago for a parade,. I used to buy most of my chap leather from Siegels of California until they closed. I'm still sad about that. I loved their Friday specials. Now I buy most of it from The Hide House. It doesn't seem like there's cheaply priced leather anywhere anymore, but the Hide House has a phenomenal selection and the colors are pretty consistent.

The Leather Guy in St. Charles, MN may be a good choice for you. They offer a lot of odd lot and overrun stuff at pretty good prices. Some of their sides are kind of small, so you may end up having to buy buying two, which would end up increasing your cost anyway with a lot left over.

They also have Bison, which I have used and really liked the finished product. They are about 4 hours from me and I don't get over that way too often, but when I do, I like to stop and go through their selection.

The temper varies with the style. I've only built one pair of step-ins, and by customer request it was really heavy, bulky, firm stuff. He even picked out the side. It would never have been my choice, but I wasn't the one ordering them. He was tickled to death with them the last I heard, so that's all that matters. Hopefully you will get some good advice from someone who builds a lot more chaps than I do.

Hey there everyone, thanks so much for all the great help! I found a pretty good deal I think from The Leather Guy, it's 22 sq. Here is the link to the listing:. The Leather Guy. If you are very careful on placing your patterns you should be able to get it done. You may need to add the fringe as opposed to cutting as part of the chap leather. Here are 3 pics of chaps made of different types of leather.

The pink were made of glove leather the other ones were made of deer tanned cowhide. In all three cases I made them out of about 27 sq ft with plenty left over. I would not chance the one 22 sq ft side for a pair of chaps.

I'd ask for two matching sides to have your bases covered. If you run short only having ordered one side, and have to order another, what happens if there isn't one to match it then?

It's much easier to have them match them up at the same time in the store than to get one now and one later and hope they match. Total square footage doesn't always tell the whole story. The side I bought was wide enough to allow me to place the yoke of the pattern at the back and the batwings at the belly area for both legs, which gives you consistent thickness and stiffness for the entire length of both legs of the chaps.

However, since I wanted the brand mark on the leather to end up in a particular position on the batwing, I reversed that and put the belt in the belly area and the batwing in the stiffer back area. The leather was sufficiently consistent throughout that it turned out fine. Try to choose the position of each leg, so that you get consistent stiffness and color for similar portions of the chaps. Try to make the left and right legs of the chaps consistent in stiffness and texture.

Once the position of the pattern was decided, I positioned the paper pattern on top of the side of leather and used an Osborne 5 overstitch wheel to trace the pattern. After marking one leg, I cut it out, then used that one as the pattern for the other leg, marking the leather by following around it with the tip of an awl.

Make sure you make a right and left leg! I cut out all the leather pieces with a utility knife, because it takes less talent and experience to use than my roundknife.

Make sure you have plenty of fresh blades, because you want to change them out often, or the knife edge will begin pushing and deforming the chap leather as it cuts. I then prepared the decorative parts for tooling.

For the yokes, pocket flaps, and belt parts, I wet the leather with a sponge, or quickly dipped it in water, and let it sit while I prepared my tools and work area. The leather is ready to tool when it begins to return to its original color. You really have to get the moisture content of the leather right in order to do the decorative tooling well.

If it is too dry, the stamp will not imprint deeply enough, and will damage the grain of the leather. I tooled the yokes, pocket flaps, and belt with a basket weave pattern I like. I laid out the pattern on the leather, starting with the border. I traced the border lightly on the damp leather with a divider, then cut it in with a Craftool swivel knife. The border needs to be wide enough to accommodate a stitching groove, wherever there will be stitching.

Then I did the basket weave stamping, beveled the border around it, then added a border stamp to edge the basket weave pattern. For the areas that would be stitched, I used a Craftool stitching groover to create a groove in the center of the border to receive the stitching. This keeps the stitches below the surface of the leather, decreasing wear from use on the stitches.

It also makes the stitches easier to keep straight and even. I then used the overstitch wheel in the groove to mark where each stitch would go. The parts are then glued in place with contact cement read the instructions on the cement , prior to stitching. The bit automatically centers in the stitching groove and the divot left by the overstitch wheel. The resultant stitching looks very straight and even. The only cautions are that each hole must be drilled quickly, to avoid burning the leather with the hot drill bit, and the dremel tool must be held perfectly perpendicular to the leather, so that the stitching line on the backside is straight and in its groove.

Cascadia maintains a uniform color while also having a naked look and soft touch. The Cascadia Camo is a full grain leather with a glovey temper and soft touch. Displaying a naturally milled grain with a camouflage print.

These hides have been high sorted over 20sft with no holes, possible high butt brands that create a high cutting yield. Unlike deer leather the cowhide will hold up to heavier use. Great for moccasins, softer bags and pouches.

These are second run quality sides. Dearborn is a glovey tempered leather that is made to imitate soft deer hide. Medium tempered black oiltan hides. Hides may have defects like range marks, brands, healed scars, tannery cuts, etc.

Embossed with a light pebble grain. Ideal for all sorts of leather goods from bags to boots and anything between. Made in USA. Beautiful Drum Stuffed Boar. Drum stuffed with a blend of waxes and oils to give the hides a durable look and feel.