Coach Rehab and Rescue Club

[Syren]

I'm so glad to see you already have it! After your first rehab reveal I browsed some from the Chelsea collection and thought oh Syren would love that mineral color! [emoji38] I didn't even have to enable! You already got it! [emoji16]

Haha! I love this color, it’s so pretty [emoji7] Thanks!

I can see the difference! It's glowing! I love this color. Which style do you like better - this or the east west barrel-shaped one?

It is glowy now! And it just feels so much better. Tough choice! I think this hobo style one will be good for weekends for me as I like to carry on my shoulder or use crossbody styles. And then satchel styles work better as a work bag for me. So I pick both [emoji23]

 

[katev]

Speaking of striped lining, did you have any issues with wet leather bleeding onto it? My wristlet was black, not BT like yours, and an ugly blackish-blue border appeared where the leather meets the liner. I didn't even dunk it - only cleaned the lining with gentle baby wipes, trying not to get the leather wet (it did, though). The extremely dirty striped lining improved, but that black border was just getting worse while the leather was drying. It was such huge turnoff, I pushed the wristlet to the back of my closet and haven't touched it since.
So, the question for people who successfully washed 65th anniversary bags: how did you make it work?

I seem to recall that when the 65th anniversary line first came out there were problems with bleeding and color transfer but that it was fixed with later releases - I'm not sure about that but it's in the back of my mind. I've never had any problems with colors running and I've washed several legacy 65th Anniversary items, I guess that I just got lucky.

 

[Catbird9]

How long should it take a Willis to dry? I can’t get the creases and pockets fully dry and I washed it Saturday

Several days is not unusual. You can try slipping paper towels into the pockets to help absorb moisture. Remove them after a few hours and replace with dry ones if they still feel damp.

I washed a Ranch Bag last Thursday and it still feels damp inside. The local humidity is a factor.

 

[Luvpurplepurses]

I finished up the rehab-light on my “Vintage” Leather Chelsea Hobo in Mineral! If you don’t see much of a difference in the before and after don’t worry the change is minimal [emoji23] Even though the leather is delicate I gave it a healthy wipe down with water, vinegar and dawn and then wiped clean with water. The surface of the bag was soooo uneven while wiping down I was scared I was just making huge ugly water marks, but it eventually saturated to an even color. It took a couple of days to dry. And then I slopped on a healthy coat of CPR and by the time I went to grab a towel to wipe off, it was completely absorbed! [emoji33] It felt really dry and stiff at first so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Then I added a coat of Blackrocks and buffed with a horsehair brush. The scrapes buffed out a bit but I think all the marks are what make it look lived in and pretty. The big front scrape blended in a bit but not much. The biggest change is the how the leather now feels, much more supple and fluid. It is less stiff and has a much nicer leather scent [emoji1] So visually not a big change but it feels a whole ton better!

Before:

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After:

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The leather looks "rich" now. Such a pretty color!

 

[Syren]

The leather looks "rich" now. Such a pretty color!

Yes it does! Thank you!

 

[tealocean]

I finished up the rehab-light on my “Vintage” Leather Chelsea Hobo in Mineral! If you don’t see much of a difference in the before and after don’t worry the change is minimal [emoji23] Even though the leather is delicate I gave it a healthy wipe down with water, vinegar and dawn and then wiped clean with water. The surface of the bag was soooo uneven while wiping down I was scared I was just making huge ugly water marks, but it eventually saturated to an even color. It took a couple of days to dry. And then I slopped on a healthy coat of CPR and by the time I went to grab a towel to wipe off, it was completely absorbed! [emoji33] It felt really dry and stiff at first so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Then I added a coat of Blackrocks and buffed with a horsehair brush. The scrapes buffed out a bit but I think all the marks are what make it look lived in and pretty. The big front scrape blended in a bit but not much. The biggest change is the how the leather now feels, much more supple and fluid. It is less stiff and has a much nicer leather scent [emoji1] So visually not a big change but it feels a whole ton better!

Before:

View attachment 4391500View attachment 4391501

After:

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This is beautiful! I can see the difference, and I know what you mean about the cleaning and conditioning making the leather even more amazing. I have a little patent leather wristlet that has a turnlock on the top like this. I believe it's called Turnlock Large Wristlet. I wonder if it's from the same line/time. I've seen pebbled leather ones that would go great with your bag! This is the first one I found, and they are calling it a Chelsea! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Coach-Chel...k-Clutch-Wristlet-F40797-Toffee-/273480350937 and https://www.ebay.com/itm/Brown-Vint...507734?hash=item23b9780c16:g:2tcAAOSwBAxcoSGL

 

[whateve]

This is beautiful! I can see the difference, and I know what you mean about the cleaning and conditioning making the leather even more amazing. I have a little patent leather wristlet that has a turnlock on the top like this. I believe it's called Turnlock Large Wristlet. I wonder if it's from the same line/time. I've seen pebbled leather ones that would go great with your bag! This is the first one I found, and they are calling it a Chelsea! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Coach-Chel...k-Clutch-Wristlet-F40797-Toffee-/273480350937 and https://www.ebay.com/itm/Brown-Vint...507734?hash=item23b9780c16:g:2tcAAOSwBAxcoSGL

The first one is from the Chelsea line. The style became so popular that they made it over and over again in lots of different leathers. Many were made for factory. It's called a capacity wristlet.

 

[tealocean]

Regina is done! It only took 2 weeks to get her smoke free. I hope! Thank you so much to everyone for all the great advice and for gasping with me over the ink spreading. I did get the ink out of the front! Now that it's done, I'm so glad I kept the bag and did my first dunking. It was so amazing to feel the bag while washing it. It still had so much moisture in it. Now I want to feel the even better vintage leather! I love how rich the leather and color look after conditioning. The British Tan is much darker and there's more of that red undertone.

Before:

After:

I got the ink off the front of the bag and there is just a hint of it on the bottom where the ink came from. It looks better in person but this picture highlights it well:

 

[whateve]

Regina is done! It only took 2 weeks to get her smoke free. I hope! Thank you so much to everyone for all the great advice and for gasping with me over the ink spreading. I did get the ink out of the front! Now that it's done, I'm so glad I kept the bag and did my first dunking. It was so amazing to feel the bag while washing it. It still had so much moisture in it. Now I want to feel the even better vintage leather! I love how rich the leather and color look after conditioning. The British Tan is much darker and there's more of that red undertone.

Before:
View attachment 4392321
After:
View attachment 4392322
I got the ink off the front of the bag and there is just a hint of it on the bottom where the ink came from. It looks better in person but this picture highlights it well:
View attachment 4392324

It came out great! You didn't have an easy rehab for your first one, but you performed like a champ!

 

[Morgan_Bellini]

Regina is done! It only took 2 weeks to get her smoke free. I hope! Thank you so much to everyone for all the great advice and for gasping with me over the ink spreading. I did get the ink out of the front! Now that it's done, I'm so glad I kept the bag and did my first dunking. It was so amazing to feel the bag while washing it. It still had so much moisture in it. Now I want to feel the even better vintage leather! I love how rich the leather and color look after conditioning. The British Tan is much darker and there's more of that red undertone.

Before:
View attachment 4392321
After:
View attachment 4392322
I got the ink off the front of the bag and there is just a hint of it on the bottom where the ink came from. It looks better in person but this picture highlights it well:
View attachment 4392324

Gorgeous!! What finally worked to get the ink out?

 

[tealocean]

Regina is done! It only took 2 weeks to get her smoke free. I hope! Thank you so much to everyone for all the great advice and for gasping with me over the ink spreading. I did get the ink out of the front! Now that it's done, I'm so glad I kept the bag and did my first dunking. It was so amazing to feel the bag while washing it. It still had so much moisture in it. Now I want to feel the even better vintage leather! I love how rich the leather and color look after conditioning. The British Tan is much darker and there's more of that red undertone.

Before:
View attachment 4392321
After:
View attachment 4392322
I got the ink off the front of the bag and there is just a hint of it on the bottom where the ink came from. It looks better in person but this picture highlights it well:
View attachment 4392324

Here are the steps for the smoky, surprise inky, Regina rehab with a disclaimer that I am new to this. It is safer to go slower and follow someone with more experience! I got great advice here but I took some drastic steps as I discovered surprises. I would have gone slower if I hadn't had ink seeping out of the bag. Here it goes:
As soon as I got the bag I sealed it in a bag while contacting the seller to see if I could try airing it out. I got some great advice here and aired the bag outside 24/7 until it rained. When inside, it was sealed up with zeolite or charcoal pouches. Eventually I kept the zeolite in the bag when it was outside too. I read about someone successfully spritzing vinegar on a leather jacket to remove smoke. The inside of the bag seemed hopeless; so after a week or so I spritzed the bag with vinegar water and let it air dry. The vinegar helped so much that I did this 3x, but on the 3rd time, the tiny dark spot on the bottom inside turned out to be ink and spread to the exterior of the bag. I panicked and blotted the ink with alcohol and then immediately gave it a bath. After rinsing, I poured vinegar into the bag and made sure it got all over the unfinished leather and into the pockets. It really held the liquid in like a canteen while I swirled it around! At this point, I could no longer smell smoke over the vinegar, but the ink had spread. I noticed more ink wicked out of the bottom of the bag onto a paper towel I stood it on. So it gave me an idea to try to pull the rest of the ink out. I have this amazing water-based surfactant product called Folex. Folex says not to use it on leather unless it can be soaked with water. At this point I was pondering E6000-ing patches onto the bag. So I went for it with the Folex, and it worked! I saturated the ink in Folex and kept blotting the bag with paper towels until ink stopped coming out. Thankfully, this ink must have been water based. It came out so easily from the front of the bag. The ink seemed to be coming from under the leather in the bottom of the bag and seemed never-ending there, but thankfully it's barely noticeable there. It looks like slightly darker leather. I washed the bag quickly and blotted more ink out. So I don't know if the Folex was necessary or water would have been enough to dissolve the ink. I did a final rinse without vinegar (since it was already full of it!) and placed the bag outside to dry. I stood it up on paper towels to wick out more ink from the bottom, and it did pull a little more out. I decided that was the last washing because I don't want the ink to move around anymore now that the front of the bag is clean. I gave it 3 coats of Leather CPR and in this pic the 2nd coat of Blackrock's Leather N Rich had just been applied. I have charcoal pouches in all the pockets just in case there is any residual smoke, but no one can smell anything. I still need to put the hangtag back on, but I worked on the hardware some more after taking these pictures last night. I read that vinegar was good for the brass, but it seemed to cause a film on it. I also read that vinegar and heat lead to verdigris. Is any of that right? I tried ketchup on the turnlock but didn't like having it so close to the leather so I switched to baking soda toothpaste. It helped a lot, but I want to work on the hardware more. I am not ready to take it off after seeing pictures of what it can look like when done by someone (me) who doesn't yet know what she's doing! Thanks again everyone! I can't wait to use my cute, brown bag!

 

[tealocean]

It came out great! You didn't have an easy rehab for your first one, but you performed like a champ!

Thank you! I learned most of my best rehab tips from you! I have conditioned all of our leather.

 

[tealocean]

Gorgeous!! What finally worked to get the ink out?

Thank you! I used Folex (a water based cleaner that I highly recommend!) and saturated the ink spot then wicked the ink out onto paper towels until no more came out. While washing the bag I continued to blot and more ink came out; so plain old soap water might have been enough to move it, but I love a good surfactant. The ink must have been water based because it was easy to wick it out.

 

[tealocean]

The first one is from the Chelsea line. The style became so popular that they made it over and over again in lots of different leathers. Many were made for factory. It's called a capacity wristlet.

I find them really cute the way the wrist strap can become a little handle or it can be carried like a clutch. Mine is my only patent leather piece. It looks like this one: https://poshmark.com/listing/Coach-...er-Turnlock-Wristlet-5a6f70a89d20f0e46dc8ca7c

 

[aerinha]

Several days is not unusual. You can try slipping paper towels into the pockets to help absorb moisture. Remove them after a few hours and replace with dry ones if they still feel damp.

I washed a Ranch Bag last Thursday and it still feels damp inside. The local humidity is a factor.

That makes me feel some better, I was afraid it would start to mold. We have a forced air system so things rarely stay damp.