The Leather I Use

 The little shoes that all my dolls have are leather.  I do not use any synthetic material they are all made from bookbinding leather in small pieces I buy from specialist retailers.

To use on the sewing machine you ideally want leather not thicker than 0.6mm and certainly no more that 1mm.  If you buy small pieces they are much cheaper per square inch than the large skivers you can buy and buying lots of smaller pieces means that you have plenty of colours to choose from.  I tend to work on the suede side of the leather because I prefer the look but the shoes look just as good leather side up.

The best place to buy bookbinding leather is Ebay, simply for ease.  The sellers there are used to small purchases and it just works so much more simply than trying to buy from leather wholesellers.  My favourite shop on Ebay is Leather4craft.  They usually have what I want for a very small price and are very helpful in finding something a bit more unusual.  There are also shops like Dolman Leathers a bit more pricey but great stuff and then there are the real specialists like J Hewitt and Sons, proper bookbinders.  They will fulfill your exact requirement but for a hefty price.