Chapter 4

Stitch, stitch, pull. Stitch, stitch, pull. Now it’s so easy to sew this leather, as if the needle were an extension of me. Just like every person who writes a letter, who learns to walk, and forgets that he has shoes until he walks barefoot and pricks himself. Every person who speaks and breathes does so naturally. Mastery is achieved with years, experience and knowledge.

The first diagrams I saw were simple drawings on sheets of paper showing the simple chain stitches, double or backstitch, multiple, and overedge, among others. There were some by hand and others by machine. There were some for joining, for decorating, some more secure and others looser.

The first impression was recorded when I saw a sewn bag being made, and with the slight tug from my father, the seam immediately came out. I thought it was badly done but he corrected me. Each knot has its function – he said – this one for example, does not come loose from inside the bag, only by pulling the end, for whoever wants to release it, it is called a simple chain stitch. It is intertwined with itself, in this way and is quite elastic. See?

So over time I acquired each one of those stitches, first fixed on the diagram with its photos, following step by step, and then I did it without thinking, while I talked or listened to the radio.

Over time I began to imagine that the stitches were more than stitches, they had another meaning. They were sublimated while I made bags, wristwatches and other leatherwork. I saw the backstitch, two series of threads that are linked, a strong stitch that does not come undone easily, that is the same right and wrong. I imagined my black woman walking, with her bare feet, hugging me from behind while I worked. I imagined the two of us as the backstitch, with nothing to hide, we were a strong stitch, although her leather was much nicer than mine.

Other people seemed to me to be like the multiple chain stitch, a stitch of several threads, of several series that are intertwined in a complex way, sometimes tangled, although it does not unravel easily it is different on the right side than on the wrong side, on one hand it shows a friendly face and on the other I don’t even tell you. I don’t even tell you!

So with each technique that we acquire in the body we can learn much more than it really is. You just have to be observant, creative and above all an enthusiast. The rest, in the end, time gives it.