Not sure how to do it. But it will look awesome.

Ikea had cow hide for $199.

I have one of those $199 cowhides on the floor! (mine is all black and white -- that's all the had the day I was there. Wish I had waited for one like pictured above)

... hoping to make a set of coordinating bar stools.

When I was upholstering our dining chairs I was thinking to upholster them with leather. I asked my friend who is professional seamstress and she said NO! You must have industrial machine ,not home version even If I buy special foot it would be impossible . So we did it with vinyl .That was not easy too .We had to use tissue paper under the foot otherwise machine would not move.
If you just need to cut it staple it then I guess it would be ok

darn it. that was not the answer I was hoping to hear.

thank you Sondra.

Isn't there fabric, that looks and feels like cow hide? Would be cheaper.

... I wonder if I could hand sew it ... it's only 4 bar stools -- probably 160 inches of sewing total ...

maybe I'll go buy some leather hand needles and "practice" (without thread) on my cowhide floor rug

I also joined the "Janome" forums and asked for advice over there. I suspect the answer will be "no", but had to give it one last try.

Did you remove existing upholstery yet? You may find that you dont even need sewing .

Sondra -- I definitely need to sew it. It's a 3" high piece of circular foam, so the top 'circle' is sewn to side strip. To just pull & staple would cheapen the look of the bar stool IMO.

Morgan -- that's a clever idea. we actually still have a shoe repair shop on main street in my town (I've wonder for YEARS how they stay in business). maybe I'll stop in and ask.

thanks.

Great idea from Morgan62
Brenda let us know,

Brenda, our little shop down the street is able to do all kinds of things :) glad to hopefully help.

First response from the Janome forums:

"I replaced my camel saddle seat with cowhide after the cats had made free with the old one treating it as a scratching post. My suggestions are, get the thinnest hide you can find, use a glover's/leather needle. This cuts a hole in the leather. Sew very slowly. I used waxed thread for strength. I still had a few spots where there were skipped stiches. As the holes were cut, I just hand stitched these areas.

If this is a one time project, your machine should be OK. I would definitely not ask it to do it again.
I would purchase the leather, make templates and trot down to my closest cobbler and ask him to do it for me. I had gone this route, but the man took forever to get started so I went down and retrieved the leather and did it myself. "

I'm very interested in this thread as I intend to upholster a wall using cow hides. For your project Brenda, would it help to use brass upholsterer tacks? I cannot quite imagine your stool but might this not be an easier and tried and trusted method?

tacks won't work. this is my bar stool. I want to maintain that "flat top" and tailored/modern look. Right now the vinyl is in 2 pieces and sewn together -- the circle top and the long strip that goes around horizontally. I'd like to keep the exact look, but in cowhide. [houzz=]

ASV - that sounds like an interesting project. are you going to cut it into squares for a "grid" pattern, or some other look/strategy?

Hi Brenda, yes, I am thinking of adding padding to large "tiles" and then working my way up the wall using different variations of cognac coloured cow hide.

Another response to my Janome forum question:

"You should be able to sew through one layer at least with the proper needles. A teflon foot might be the foot to use so that the fabric feeds and doesn't stick to the leather. I wouldn't use a walking type foot as it could mark the leather. "

You will need a "leather needle" for the machine: it's shaped to penetrate the leather.

Get some scraps of hair-on hide and test it. When I was sewing leather jackets, we used true industrial machines and they still had problems with the full-thickness leathers. Thinner, split-grain, kidskins and suedes I could do with my Singer Featherweight.

A hair-on cowhide is NOT going to be easy to sew because they are really thick and you have to deal with the grain of the hair (it's going to make the seats slick one way and scratchy the other way). Add the seam easing required to get the round top mated to the flat side strip and you are into technically really difficult territory.

thank you for your advice tsudhonimh. I think it would be wise for me to try and get my hands on some (cheap) scrap pieces of cowhide to play around with my options before I commit money and energy into the upholstery project.

the grain is something that I hadn't considered ... though based on how soft the cowhide rug that I own is, I'm not sure it will be a problem.

Brenda - It's not the stiffness, it's the direction of the hairs. It will be slipperier in one direction than another.

tsudhonimh, why do you think that is a concern? is it a comfort issue? safety? I've see a number of furniture pieces upholstered in cowhide, so I don't think I'm breaking new ground here. what am I missing?

Would look SO cool! Hope it works out and you post pictures of the results. Love the stools.

Hi Brenda - any update?