Coach Rehab and Rescue Club

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#26,866
LunaSilver said:
Yours looks really good. You did a great job rehab it. (Whenever I see other people's made in Italy bag, they are always looking so elegant and nice, but mine always not).
My fault is I tend to put bags in water first before any thinking. Lol.. those made in Italy bags need to be babied like what you did.
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Thanks @LunaSilver! That's very nice of you to say so. I'm still awed at what you did to that spot on the front flap!

Funny, that's how I feel too... that other people's rehab, not only the Italian bags, always looks sooo... much better. Maybe because we want those beauties for ourselves! :drool:
 
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#26,869
Serena Shaw said:
Inspired by @LunaSilver sharing her mistake, I also want to share a big one I recently discovered hoping to spare others from going through what I did.

In a recent rehab, the turnlock had an unusual amount of verdigris. A bag I was wearing was close by and for whatever reason I looked at the turnlock and saw there was verdigris on it! Imagine my surprise since I live in dry inland Northern California and thought verdigris only happened to bags closer to the coast where it's hot and humid, like Florida. I removed the turnlock and discovered more verdigris underneath. I went on to inspect more bags and found verdigris on 6 more bags I had cleaned and conditioned throughly, including two recently finished!

I usually try to clean any visible verdigris really well on the turnlocks and other hardware. I don't remove the hardware unless it's absolutely necessary since I would hate to scratch the hardware or the leather in the process. A while back someone said they always remove the turnlock and I thought that was overdoing it. Big mistake! Wished I had listened then!

Here is the process I used to clean the verdigris. Most of it is gained here from other wonderful rehabbers. Scraped off as much of the verdigris as possible from the turnlock and carefully from the bag. I used a small flat screwdriver. Using paper towel, wipe the rest of the verdigris from the turnlock pieces and drop them in full strength vinegar to soak. Make sure to get it all out of the groves on the bag, otherwise you'll have to repeat the next steps again, like I did! Using an old toothbrush, wash the area with verdigris with dawn, vinegar and water mixture in a cup, rinse it off with water, then dunked the whole bag in vinegar and water to avoid any water stains. Dry and condition as you normally do. I did the same to the other bags and hope the verdigris doesn't come back!

I've been a long time lurker here learning so much from everyone. Thanks to all who so freely share your experience and knowledge! :tup:
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Thanks for sharing this. Many times I don't remove turn lock either. Will not cut the corners again from now on.
 
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#26,870
LunaSilver said:
End result is so so..
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LunaSilver said:
Yours looks really good. You did a great job rehab it. (Whenever I see other people's made in Italy bag, they are always looking so elegant and nice, but mine always not).
My fault is I tend to put bags in water first before any thinking. Lol.. those made in Italy bags need to be babied like what you did.
Click to expand...

I am sorry to hear that the Bridle bag was a disappointment. I have rehabbed several Italian-made Coach bags but only Madison and Gramercy bags, I have never tried to rehab a Bridle bag. That Bridle bag was really dirty and needed to be dunked. I've dunked a few of my Italian bag successfully but they do take a long, long time to dry - sometimes a week!

I try to leave them alone during the drying stages, just turning them over occasionally and sometimes applying a little conditioner to the areas that are drying fastest.

I have used Black Rocks as the final product on some Italian bags that have bad scuffing - and it really helped to hide flaws - it might hide that kiss mark on your bag.

I am always disappointed when a rehab is just okay and not as nice as hoped, but your bag truly looks much, much better - nice work!
 
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#26,871
katev said:
I am sorry to hear that the Bridle bag was a disappointment. I have rehabbed several Italian-made Coach bags but only Madison and Gramercy bags, I have never tried to rehab a Bridle bag. That Bridle bag was really dirty and needed to be dunked. I've dunked a few of my Italian bag successfully but they do take a long, long time to dry - sometimes a week!

I try to leave them alone during the drying stages, just turning them over occasionally and sometimes applying a little conditioner to the areas that are drying fastest.

I have used Black Rocks as the final product on some Italian bags that have bad scuffing - and it really helped to hide flaws - it might hide that kiss mark on your bag.

I am always disappointed when a rehab is just okay and not as nice as hoped, but your bag truly looks much, much better - nice work!
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I read all your Italian bags and others rehabs, you always did such a wonderful job, the finished projets were prestine.
I agree my bridle top handle has improved a lot and is now usable, but just not good enough and I am not in love. Lesson learned, from now on I will avoid bags in bad condition, also will try to be more patient and more gentle for future rehab. I don't have Blackrock, it cost more on shipping than product itself on amazon.ca, I may have to bite the bullet and order some. Thanks .
 
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