Leather covering a steering wheel

by

Tom Wykes

Having got bored of arriving at work with black sticky hands and worse still a black line across my shirt on my stomach (too much beer). I decided to do something about it. Not willing to give up the beer, although that would only solve one of the problems. I decided to cover the rim in leather. Yes I know you can buy lace on leather steering wheel covers, but firstly I couldn’t find one for sale and secondly I don’t think that they are very attractive. I had a vision in my head of what I wanted it to look like, and I think I came pretty close.

Tools…

• Scalpel to cut the leather. You can use a “Stanley” or carpet knife but the blade is very thick and doesn’t cut as well as a good scalpel or craft knife.
• A leather needle. Very different to a normal sewing needle, as it has a blade at the point so it cuts the leather not just pushes a hole through.
• Two large sewing needles
• Good strong leather stitching thread.
• A long straight edge to cut against
• A ruler and tape measure
• Block of beeswax or similar

Procedure...

Measure the circumference of your steering wheel, this is the length of leather you will need. Also measure the circumference of the hand grip, this will determine the width of leather you will need. Add 10-20% to the initial measurements and this is the size of strip you need to buy. Most leather has a bias as to which way it stretches the most your strip must have the most stretch along it’s length and a minimum across it’s width.

Why the stretch? When you cut the leather to size you need to work out what the Inner circumference of your steering wheel is and make sure that you leather strip will stretch to the length of you outer circumference. Do this by marking the two lengths on a board and lay the leather next to them now mark the leather next to the shortest length and then try and pull this mark up to the longest length.

Having established that the leather will stretch the required amount. Cut it to length (size of the inner circumference of your steering wheel).
Now using the off cut you need to establish the circumference of the grip. You are looking to wrap the leather around the grip with about a 2-3mm gap where the leather will meet. Again ensure that the leather will stretch enough for the ends to meet so that you get a nice seam once it’s been sewn. Once you have worked out the exact width you need it is time to cut the strip down to size.

Now you have a neat rectangle of leather, it’s time to poke some holes. Using a pen and a ruler mark lines down each of the long edges 3mm in from each edge. Likewise at each end of the strip mark a line 2mm from the ends. Now along both of the long lines using the leather needle punch a hole every 5mm these hole need to line up so do this carefully. And on the short lines punch a hole every 3mm, again these need to line up too.

Stitching Technique...

First join the two short edges together. The stitching is done using two needles, thread them both with thread and then draw the thread through the beeswax a few times this helps to lubricate the thread and stops it from snagging and make it easier to draw through the leather.

 

Pass a needle through each beginning hole from the back side to the front now tie the tails of the threads together. Now each needle has to go into the hole that the opposite thread is coming out of. This will give you a neat straight “lace” perpendicular to the seam. Then the needles cross over at the back emerging in the next set of holes and so on until you get to the end then tie off as before. Make sure to pull the threads nice and tight so as to butt the leather edges together. (DON’T pull so hard that the leather buckles).

Now you have a hoop of leather that you can stretch on to the steering wheel, and here’s the clever bit. Because you have had to stretch the leather on you will find that the edges of the leather won’t want to stretch and as a result the lap naturally round the grip making it easy to the stitch them together using the same method as before.

To download a cutting diagram and details on stiching, click here.

Conclusion...

The whole thing took me about 5 Hours (over 4 evenings) to complete so I had to borrow a steering wheel as I use my car daily. I have done some sewing before but never leather. It is surprisingly easy if a bit dull, but I think the results were worth it.