Coach Rehab and Rescue Club

[Daisy1108]

If I send the bag in for repair, and they decide they can't fix it, they will return it right? They won't just decide it's unfixable and send me a coupon. I'll deal with the bag if it can't be fixed, it's too nice to give up.

Anytime I have needed a repair, I've always popped into my Coach store - I show my SA what I need done to see if the evaluation option is available (my FP manager is soooo knowledgeable/been there so long, she knows what Jacksonville is able to repair and what COACH deems irreparable).

If it can be sent in then I let them know if I want it back - repaired or not! There MUST be a spot for comments or to request bag return without repair because I've been contacted by Jacksonville telling me the bag could not be repaired and giving me the option of having the bag returned to me rather than getting a discount on a future purchase.

Rely on your SA or Manager. If in doubt, call Jacksonville and check on the evaluation.

Good Luck!

BTW - I LOVE this thread.

 

[Jessi319]

My only other minor gripe is the leather seems a little dry and stiff. For some reason I want to dunk it before I condition it, it just seems like absorbing some h2o and then conditioning it would work better-but it really doesn't need cleaning. (advice?) Either way I'm not even going to condition the leather till I after I send it in, or take it to a cobbler.

I have just dunked an otherwise clean bag to simply re-shape it and I often do think the water, put together with conditioners seems to restore it's integrity. Water makes it seem stiff at first but it becomes pliable again. Also, if a repair involves just fixing a hardware issue or something a cobbler can do I'd probably save myself the shipping charge and keep it local and take it to a cobbler. Unless you really think you'd prefer a replacement discount coupon instead of the bag itself. Just my thoughts--- and others have probably had luck with sending things out and since you have lots of time til next fall season, it would probably be great either way.

 

[katev]

How do you clean a Coach leather purse and the interior lining? The bottom of the leather has a lot of stains and the interior lining of the purse is pretty dirty. I'm afraid to ruin the leather since it's a light colored bag.

You could try pulling the lining out of the bag as far as possible and cleaning it with non-alcohol baby wipes and then using a mild soap and water and a soft rag to hand-wash the exterior. You will probably need to work on the worst spots with a soft tooth brush.

If that doesn't work you can try giving it a bath in the sink or tying it uup in an old pillow case and washing it in the washer on the delicate cycle with woolite. It may help to pre-treat the worst areas with oxy-gel first.

Giving an expensive, light-colored bag a bath is always a risk, but if it is too dirty to carry you might decide that it is worth the risk, good luck!

 

[Aimgrrrl]

I wouldn't do anything permanent to the bag, so no sealant. What I would probably do is find a cute fabric cover to put over the handles. Maybe wrapping in a silk scarf like they do in the Hermes thread once in a while? Or maybe one of those seatbelt covers with the velcro to wrap around the handles where it would come into contact with the coat? I imagine if you look there has to be some kind of thing that would go around that handle that would be both cute and functional, and would protect both your coat and the bag!

This is a good idea - thank you. I'm not usually a huge fan of the Coach scarves (I don't usually dig the signature patterned items - I'm a vintage "if you know the brand you'll recognize the bag" kind of girl. but there are scarves I've seen with the sig pattern that would be very pretty wrapped this way. Thank you for the thought!! I also have a few random scarves that would work.

Edited to add, you might try one of those at home dry cleaning kits for cleaning the dye off the coat, I would be careful and test it first, but it comes with a small bottle of dry cleaning solution, and it works wonders on most things I ever tried it on, I want to say the brand name of it was Dryel, but I am not really sure. And, if that doesn't work, check those little fliers that come in the mailbox once in a while for a dry cleaning one, they usually have good deals on coat cleaning this time of year.

Good call. I love my coat, it looks high-end, but was a $13 Target markdown. It's winter white, cape-style, and fully lined. I worry it would twist and lose its shape if properly dry cleaned, as Target stuff tends to not hold up to cleaning well.

I don't know if this would help or not, but you could try spraying it with a protectant spray, like Apple Rain Garde, to see if that also provides protection from color transfer. Just an idea.

This also may work, and may be a good idea to prevent color transfer to the scarves, too.

I don't know if it was dyed at some point, or if the color transfer is just normal with a red older bag, but it certainly made me sad. I need to do some conditioning and whatnot with the bag anyway, so maybe a dunk and condition will also help. I wondered if the lanolin in the wool was part of the issue; if the bag is dry maybe it's somehow drinking up the lanolin, making it a bit wet, then the color runs a bit. *shrug* This is my best guess.

 

[katev]

...I don't know if it was dyed at some point, or if the color transfer is just normal with a red older bag, but it certainly made me sad. I need to do some conditioning and whatnot with the bag anyway, so maybe a dunk and condition will also help. I wondered if the lanolin in the wool was part of the issue; if the bag is dry maybe it's somehow drinking up the lanolin, making it a bit wet, then the color runs a bit. *shrug* This is my best guess.

I am always afraid to dunk a red bag because I worry about losing the vivid color, but others have reported successfully washing red bags, good luck!

 

[tehkatt]

Thanks for the tips! I spent a little time today massaging Orange Clean into the strap. It's almost like the strap got "cooked!" It did remove some of the darkness on the strap, and made it much more flexible. It contains aloe, glycerin, lanolin and jojoba, so I figured it wouldn't hurt the leather. We'll see if there is really any improvement after it dries!

I agree that a good soak can't hurt either...and will try your tips accordingly. And I'm thinking making the bath a little warmer than usual to see if it will budge the grease.

Thanks again...will keep everyone posted!

I would def bathe it in a boiling hot bath. This may be sacrilege but I wash all my bags in steaming hot water (out the faucet) and my bags always bounced back beautifully. Just do not rinse with cold water, take it out of the water, blot off the excess, stuff and let it cool down slowly on a towel. If you rinse with cold water I've seen once my bags leather kind of seize up so I don't do it at all.

Sometimes I take my bags out and they steam up because they're so hot! But I've never lost dye, leather always ended up supple and beautiful.

Soak it in dawn and then scrub really well to get off excess grease. Change and soak again in hot water to get out the soak. It may not lighten the 'cooked' spots, but it'll clean it up and then you can moisturize and treat it, maybe even dye it

 

[tehkatt]

I am always afraid to dunk a red bag because I worry about losing the vivid color, but others have reported successfully washing red bags, good luck!

I was so freaked out the first time i tried to wash my red Willis but the color held up awesome, water just turned slightly pink during dunking. It is scary because the red is so gorgeous!.

I wish I had more red bags :-0!

 

[Nekolassa]

All of you may know, I had an extremely luck day last Saturday when I found this vintage beauty on ebay. Please use the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/76058330@N03/sets/72157629398271288/


Remember, if you want to see the comments, view the photos one by one and not as a slideshow.


BTW - there is another "Cashin Big Mouth" in black on ebay, not promoting, just telling you in case you want to have this beauty for your collection. The one listed is black, mine is chocolate brown.

Happy Easter (if you celebrate it).

 

[katev]

All of you may know, I had an extremely luck day last Saturday when I found this vintage beauty on ebay. Please use the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/76058330@N03/sets/72157629398271288/


Remember, if you want to see the comments, view the photos one by one and not as a slideshow.


BTW - there is another "Cashin Big Mouth" in black on ebay, not promoting, just telling you in case you want to have this beauty for your collection. The one listed is black, mine is chocolate brown.

Happy Easter (if you celebrate it).

Lucky find, congrats!

 

[Nekolassa]

Lucky find, congrats!

Thanks Katev, I was jealous when you found your $2 beauty, no such luck for me

 

[xoxotofu]

Hmm. Wouldn't leather bags form water spots if I dunk it in water? Should I condition the leather instead with Apple brand?

You could try pulling the lining out of the bag as far as possible and cleaning it with non-alcohol baby wipes and then using a mild soap and water and a soft rag to hand-wash the exterior. You will probably need to work on the worst spots with a soft tooth brush.

If that doesn't work you can try giving it a bath in the sink or tying it uup in an old pillow case and washing it in the washer on the delicate cycle with woolite. It may help to pre-treat the worst areas with oxy-gel first.

Giving an expensive, light-colored bag a bath is always a risk, but if it is too dirty to carry you might decide that it is worth the risk, good luck!

 

[katev]

Hmm. Wouldn't leather bags form water spots if I dunk it in water? Should I condition the leather instead with Apple brand?

I have often dunked unlined, glove-tanned leather bags, and I've also washed some lined leather bags and pebbled leather bags without problems, too. But there are always some risk to the process and there are some bags I will not bathe, like natural unfinished leather.

You should try surface cleaning first and then decide if more drastic measures are needed and if you want to take a chance.

Below are a few pics of a vintage bag that I recently rehabbed and revealed. You will see a photo before rehab, while getting a bath, and after the bag has dried and been conditioned. The bag survived quite well, it's a risk that I sometimes take when I feel that it's the best option. Good luck!

 

[Jessi319]

I was so freaked out the first time i tried to wash my red Willis but the color held up awesome, water just turned slightly pink during dunking. It is scary because the red is so gorgeous!.

I wish I had more red bags :-0!

I've just washed a red tribeca bag....the sink was really full of red dye, so I'm a little worried. We'll see how it goes.

 

[angelaira]

I got three bags in the mail today... the one with the huge ink spot that I got to practice removing ink, and two more, one with an even bigger undisclosed ink spot, and one with ball point pen ink all over the inside! I always buy bags that are sketchy in their details because I get good prices this way, but two in one day with serious issues that were undisclosed kinda makes me a little mad!

But anyway, the bright side is I am learning how to remove ink from a bag, and my method started with alcohol, which sorta worked, and has now evolved, I will show full details once the bags are done, but I will warn you, this is a process!!!

 

[ledobe]

Interesting! I usually do not attempt any "touch ups" until after I have conditioned the bag, because the leather may darken naturally and doesn't need a touch-up. But I have never tried Fieblings so I wil be interested in seeing how it comes out. Sorry, I don't know what to do about the white patches, maybe they were caused by a splash of bleach? I hope the Fieblings does the trick, good luck!

I had washed and conditioned it once, but it wasn't helping with the light spots. Since the ink spot on the front was kind of bothering me anyway, once I decided to dye the black, I figured it would take more evenly on unconditioned leather-and I could also attempt to get the ink out at the same time.

It's worth mentioning that the light spots weren't that noticeable, and I could have lived with them, it was as much to experiment with the dye as anything. I wanted to start with a clean slate, no conditioners.

The Fiebings is super thin, pretty much like black water. As I said, they dye just soaked in. After conditioning, I could still see the lines between the touch ups and the undyed, but only if I tried really hard.

So here are the afters:

The piping around the corners, this was the worst part of the bag:

The back of the bag, for some reason the glare in the picture makes the bag look lighter than it is, but it shows the contrast a little better, you can kind of see the black dye, but just barely.

Here is the full bag, it's not a very good reveal picture, it looked better on my phone, and it looks as black in real life as the above pictures where I show the piping:

Overall I'm really happy with it. You can really see all the flaws out in the sun where I took the pictures, if you're looking for it. Indoors it really looks like a new bag. I'm going to try buffing it again tomorrow afternoon, I still get a little black on the cloth when I rub it down. I'm going to wear it with black pants the first time I use it just to play it safe, but I suspect that it's not really going to be a problem. Will report here if it is in case anyone else is tempted to try the same method.