A hand-sewn leather seam made with one thread and a needle at each end, the two ends crossing at every stitch.
A saddle stitch is sewn by hand with a single length of thread and a needle threaded on each end. The French Ministry of Labor’s standard for the saddler’s qualification sets out the work: the stitch positions are marked with a pricking iron, the leather is pierced with an awl, and the saddler sews seated, the pieces held in a saddler’s clamp, with round-point needles and twisted linen or braided synthetic thread. The stitches on the underside must match those on top. In French the stitch is the point sellier. Hermès, which calls it a house signature, crosses the two ends of a beeswax-coated linen thread at each stitch, and says its leather objects stay intact even if a stitch breaks.
A machine lockstitch is built differently: Elias Howe’s sewing machine, patented in 1846, interlocks two separate threads, one carried by the needle and one by a shuttle. In printing and bookbinding the term means something unrelated: the Getty vocabulary defines saddle stitching as binding a single-gathering pamphlet with wire staples through the fold.
In job listings
Saddler and leather craftsperson listings ask for hand stitching alongside cutting, preparation and assembly, some after a training program run by the house, and after-sales repair roles rework worn stitching. Many listings ask for hand stitching and machine sewing together. See current saddler roles.
