My vintage Elna will sew through anything you can get under the presser foot which can be manually raised quite high. My Singer 301 came with 4 layers of mid weight leather under the presser foot, but I'd not ask her to do that. My daughter did while playing with it so I know it has the capability, but that's not what I purchased that one for. If you want vintage for purses, wouldn't you want a zigzag machine? The FW and 301 are both straight stitch only.