Washing - yes WASHING, my Part Time

A

AGinTO

O.G.
Nov 12, 2009
108
6
#1
I was inspired by another thread where betnyp washed her bag in Woolite in her sink... I scored this bag on eBay thinking I'd dye her black, but her original colour is so pretty! A few of the gals here convinced me to try to salvage the bag in her original colour first - so here it goes!

My first attempt at this is by washing her... I used a gentle, soap-free, ph-balanced facial cleansing foam.

It's one of those "self-foaming" cleansers... first I rubbed it on the more stained parts of the bag, I could see a few of the stains lift up right before my eyes! I rubbed it all over the handles. Then I dunked it into the sudsy sink and rubbed it all over. I rinsed it well, and rolled it up inside a towel... I put a towel inside it and pressed some more... It's now hanging in my closet, drying!

Here is a picture of the bag pre-wash. You can see the difference in color between the purse and the never-used strap and mirror.
 

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#5
I rubbed and rubbed the bag, using only my hands. I didn't want to rough up the leather, but I wanted the leather to be equally soaked. As you can see from the second picture in the previous post, the water was absorbing unevenly.

Here is a picture of the water... Is this dirt from the leather? Dirt from the lining? Or both... or is it dye from the leather?
 

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#6
Here is the bag after the wash, before being thoroughly rinsed... in the second picture, you can see a spot that wouldn't rub out and wouldn't darken from the water. I can only assume that the bag had been repaired at some point with additional dye/polish added to the leather. It was expertly done, because in the before pictures of this bag, you couldn't even see the discrepancy... it's strange that it showed up on the wet leather though!
 

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#7
The bag looks very brown in her wet state! Based on the awesome advice from betnyp in her original thread, I hung the bag up with a hanger inside the bag, as to not bend the handles out of shape...

Here she is drying in the closet... tomorrow morning I'll take her down, roll her around in a towel so the leather doesn't stiffen up and hang her up again to continue drying. Once the bag is mostly dry I'll take a leather conditioner to her and let her hang out a little while longer to see how she'll dry up! I hope the stains are reduced enough that I can use her in her existing colour - even if only for this season!
 

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#10
Great job, I can't wait to see the end result! It looks very much like Sahara to me also. Sandstone is a bit darker and I believe Griege is a more Grey tone but I could be wrong. Keep us posted:tup:
 
#12
tatertot said:
Great job, I can't wait to see the end result! It looks very much like Sahara to me also. Sandstone is a bit darker and I believe Griege is a more Grey tone but I could be wrong. Keep us posted:tup:
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Check out this picture... the bag is overall a bit dirty, which is why I thought she might be a different colour than Sahara... Look at the colour of the Strap. The strap is unused and brand-new...does it look like Sahara to you too? (and what year would that make the bag?)
 

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