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Such a change...its almost like shes standing up straight full of pride being cared for and refreshed by an expert.
. I can wash the strap tomorrow and save the bag for next weekend when the weather should be nice enough to hang it outside vs today when it rained nonstop.
She turned out gorgeous. 
Looks great! I think Station is my favorite out of my vintage bags. I have purple and forest green. I got the purple one back out just a bit ago. I like my gray Court bag for the leather, color and the pockets, etc, but there is something about the Station that makes me like carrying it more.The Station is done. I had to do an additional coat on the Murphy, and still have to put it back together and replace the bit of leather on the one dowel end, but here are the after photos of the Station. With flash, so imagine it about two shades richer.
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And the befores:
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I guess you could always paint them if you wanted, but it isn't necessary.
Thanks! It turns out I will be sticking with my Willis. A friend who loves vintage and owns no good bags is getting the Station as a gift, and the Murphy is destined for my mother, who has loved my Willis from afar, but needs a smaller bag due to back problems. I warned her the Murphy, though smaller, is still fairly substantial, but she can't wait to at least try it out.
My friends call me the Thriftmaster 5000. I almost exclusively wear 2nd hand clothing and accessories, in part for this very reason. Everything from Levis to vintage dresses, including one gorgeous LBD in wool crepe from one of Jackie Kennedy's fashion-houses of choice. (A St. Louis fashion house little remembered today, but VERY high quality.) Even my housewares and furniture are almost all 2nd hand, including the 1960s dinette set you will have seen in many of my photos, and the University of Nebraska card catalogue that might have been in one or two. I've rehabbed everything from leather bags to antique chairs to vintage wool sweaters with holes. (The sweaters are a favorite of mine. One might even call it a collection.) It does my soul good, somehow. Reusing and repurposing are good for my pocketbook and the planet, too.
A little granola, I know, and a little cheap, too. But I own some beautiful things that other people didn't want or couldn't fix or didn't know the value of, so it's also like I win a contest every time I shop. LolI haven't needed to do this with a bag, but when I repair other leather items, I find that inserting a piece of fabric or thin leather behind the crack or tear works wonders. It would be a little tricky here, and there is the seam allowance inside from the actual flap edge, but a piece of cotton bias binding in a similar color, or a bit of coat leather scrap carefully worked into the gap will help prevent the edging from flattening from the pressure required to set the cement, as well as reinforcing that spot. If you lightly coat the piece with cement and let it dry to tacky before inserting it with tweezers or a knitting needle, and then bond the cracked leather to that piece and edge to edge, it will help distribute the pressure of use away from the weakened area.
Happy Easter! Great find! You may not have to darken it. My recent burgundy bag I rehabbed had 3 coats of leather CPR. It was very very dry so I put one coat of Leather Therapy Restorer & Conditioner. It says it won't darken color significantly but I think mine did but just enough to restore the original color.
