Hi, I was wondering if you guys have any way of testing whether the clothes we wear will give color transfer or not to the bags? I am always sad to see my lighter color bags have color transfer from my clothes. Is there any way we can test the fabric before we wear it with a certain bag? Is soaking it water the only way to do it bc that is kind of a hassle? I was thinking of buying a white piece of leather and rubbing it abrasively against my clothes. What do you think?
Any way to test fabric to prevent color transfer?
- Thread starter m8875
- Start date
Not leather, PAPER.
Colored leather is treated with a seal.
Rub the material really hard against a stack of white writing paper (photo copy or 3 ring binder quality, not the super thin stuff or special bonded kind).
Make sure the paper is really flat on the table and rub away.
Paper is the only thing that will show every imperfection clearly.
Oil, dirt, dye, if it transfers onto paper it will transfer onto every other surface.
Colored leather is treated with a seal.
Rub the material really hard against a stack of white writing paper (photo copy or 3 ring binder quality, not the super thin stuff or special bonded kind).
Make sure the paper is really flat on the table and rub away.
Paper is the only thing that will show every imperfection clearly.
Oil, dirt, dye, if it transfers onto paper it will transfer onto every other surface.
FYI, I learned this trick from working in retail.
If we came across money that we weren't sure was real or not, we'd rub it against white paper. If it transfers ink it's real.
So even paper can cause color transfer, like shopping bags from stores, money, boxes books, coffee cups, pad of paper or another handbag.
I see a lot of people holding their bags in the same hand as a paper shopping bag from some store or while drinking coffee. You might not have gotten the color transfer from your clothes, it could have been from something unexpected like while you were trying on clothes, accidentally brushed against another shopper or a rack of clothes, handling money or a gift box or shopping bag. Try not to take your light bags shopping when you will be picking a lot of things up in your hands, constantly touching money or picking up and putting your bag down a lot, there are far too many things that could cause color transfer that you wouldn't even think could cause it when doing something like shopping or running errands.
If we came across money that we weren't sure was real or not, we'd rub it against white paper. If it transfers ink it's real.
So even paper can cause color transfer, like shopping bags from stores, money, boxes books, coffee cups, pad of paper or another handbag.
I see a lot of people holding their bags in the same hand as a paper shopping bag from some store or while drinking coffee. You might not have gotten the color transfer from your clothes, it could have been from something unexpected like while you were trying on clothes, accidentally brushed against another shopper or a rack of clothes, handling money or a gift box or shopping bag. Try not to take your light bags shopping when you will be picking a lot of things up in your hands, constantly touching money or picking up and putting your bag down a lot, there are far too many things that could cause color transfer that you wouldn't even think could cause it when doing something like shopping or running errands.
Last edited:
You wont get a proper read of the color transfer because it would take a lot more for a stain to show up on white leather than it would a piece of white paper (there's a protective seal over the color applied to the leather). A better leather to use would be vegetable tanned leather which is vachetta. You can buy scraps of that at any leather store, but that isn't white so paper is still better.