Coach Rehab and Rescue Club

[Belicious]

That's weird about the white spots. I looked at your pictures and would also guess mold.


I want to add my 2 cents about soaking straps: I always wash straps since I'm often washing NYC bags and the straps have verdigris on them usually.. plus often are really bent from being in the buckle for 40 years or whatever.. But yesterday I was washing the strap of a Courier pouch (I think it is called) and a little crack appeared on the edge of the strap that wasn't there prior to washing, so I think the soaking was maybe too long and caused the leather to soften too much.. I don't know. I guess I will just put a little glue in the crack and hope it doesn't look too terrible.


I have an issue I would like to ask you all about, it's holes. What do you do if you can't glue them shut because the leather just doesn't stretch? I have a few old bags with this problem. I am thinking about experimenting with putting a tiny patch on. I am considering pulling off the edging of a station bag that I would call a failed rehab thanks to a horrible smell. I would cut the patch of leather really small and put it over the hole with leather glue and then use acrylic to match the brown color exactly. Any thoughts?

 

[coach943]

That's weird about the white spots. I looked at your pictures and would also guess mold.


I want to add my 2 cents about soaking straps: I always wash straps since I'm often washing NYC bags and the straps have verdigris on them usually.. plus often are really bent from being in the buckle for 40 years or whatever.. But yesterday I was washing the strap of a Courier pouch (I think it is called) and a little crack appeared on the edge of the strap that wasn't there prior to washing, so I think the soaking was maybe too long and caused the leather to soften too much.. I don't know. I guess I will just put a little glue in the crack and hope it doesn't look too terrible.


I have an issue I would like to ask you all about, it's holes. What do you do if you can't glue them shut because the leather just doesn't stretch? I have a few old bags with this problem. I am thinking about experimenting with putting a tiny patch on. I am considering pulling off the edging of a station bag that I would call a failed rehab thanks to a horrible smell. I would cut the patch of leather really small and put it over the hole with leather glue and then use acrylic to match the brown color exactly. Any thoughts?

I think the patch idea is a good one. I'd be interested in how it works out. I tried sewing a hole once, and it wasn't ideal. Post pictures of before and after when you are done. I am curious of how it works as I have a bag that needs serious edging repair sitting in my rehab pile.

 

[whateve]

That's weird about the white spots. I looked at your pictures and would also guess mold.


I want to add my 2 cents about soaking straps: I always wash straps since I'm often washing NYC bags and the straps have verdigris on them usually.. plus often are really bent from being in the buckle for 40 years or whatever.. But yesterday I was washing the strap of a Courier pouch (I think it is called) and a little crack appeared on the edge of the strap that wasn't there prior to washing, so I think the soaking was maybe too long and caused the leather to soften too much.. I don't know. I guess I will just put a little glue in the crack and hope it doesn't look too terrible.


I have an issue I would like to ask you all about, it's holes. What do you do if you can't glue them shut because the leather just doesn't stretch? I have a few old bags with this problem. I am thinking about experimenting with putting a tiny patch on. I am considering pulling off the edging of a station bag that I would call a failed rehab thanks to a horrible smell. I would cut the patch of leather really small and put it over the hole with leather glue and then use acrylic to match the brown color exactly. Any thoughts?

I have a bag that has holes in the corners. My plan is to put a leather patch inside the hole and glue it in. Then fill in the gaps with puffy paint.

 

[whateve]

Expert rehabbers and anybody with an idea, please let me know how could I tackle this Madison Madeline.

I found it at a thrift shop, kinda a Goodwill for $11.50. I thought I could give it a try to help this already very used bag. The inside is clean and there are not stains or ink outside either, just DIRT!

The printed fabric is like a canvas, most dirt on the top folds by the zipper. The white corners also show dirt or wear (lost of white finish), the handles are the worse! I know I can fix the cracks but I don't know if they are dirty or also lost the finish. I do not think that the usual trick of paint plus conditioner is going to help here. Leather refinisher perhaps? Could I dunk it?

As you see I need help :wondering

I'm not exactly sure what is wrong with the straps but I'll tell you what I would do. First you need to cut off all the hanging edge coating and redo it. You can use Fiebings edgekote but it is very thin and takes a long time to build up a smooth edge. There is a new Fiebings product that looks promising: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...rue&ref_=ox_sc_sfl_title_5&smid=AF81SRBMBCBM2
I haven't tried it yet. What I usually use is fabric paint or a combination of leather cement, paint and edgekote. For the straps themselves, if they are too floppy, I paint them with leather cement to try to fill in all the cracks. For a recent bag, I used artist's acrylic paint, which is thicker than craft paint, and then used acrylic gloss varnish (available with the craft paint) on top. In my experience, Leather Refinisher works well on certain types of leather but is fairly thin so won't cover darker stains. I've had it work like a dream on faded pebbled leather, restoring it to a new appearance, but when I tried it on this recent bag, it didn't cover the dingy appearance of the bag. This particular bag also had some ink marks. The only thing that covered those was the acrylic artist paint. Then the gloss varnish was put on top to make it more permanent and shiny.

For the fabric parts of the bag, you could try fabric paint, or RIT dye painted on.

Giving a heads up on my bag with the "unknown" specks on the back, since I posted I have tried after the wiping with vinegar, also wiping with a mixture of alcohol and water, then paint by itself, that seemed to cover the dots, but later reappear, so I gave up and just condition. It looks like it is improving (not gone but less noticeable), after a couple treatments of Obenouf's.

You know how sticky is this product and hard to buff, well in this area of the bag is like it is absorbed and there is nothing left, I can apply more and gone again... I would have loved to solve this mystery to hopefully help others that might encounter the problem in the future, sorry...

About the white handles of the Madelaine, nobody gave an opinion but I am leaning towards the leather refinisher, paint and conditioner might not do the job.

To those of you new at this, it is addictive, a learning process, a hit and miss... good luck and thanks for the tip on the Sonoma straps.

I think I've had something that absorbed in spots like that too. It could be mold damage, meaning the mold is dead but the damage is still there.

 

[Bucketbagger]

Some before and after:

 

[Zealous]

Some before and after:

Looks great!

 

[whateve]

Some before and after:

looks beautiful! It was sad seeing it smashed like it was.

 

[Sonoma]

Some before and after:

Wow, what a great job - beautiful!

 

[sharesorsha]

Before photos: This purse was in pretty good shape, just the inside needed a good cleaning. I have discovered that black hides everything. There was a big ink blob/stain inside that I got out with Mean Green (I figured out it was there because black color started coming off when washing), and I wound up leaving another ink mark inside because it's not noticeable and I didn't want to wet the bag a second time. I accidentally dropped the bag in the wash water as I was attempting to clean the interior so I washed the whole bag and then quickly dried the exterior off.

 

[sharesorsha]

After photos: I thought I was pretty successful in getting the white substance off the back pocket until I took a photo and saw some still there (which was a disappointment.) I'm not sure what happened to the zipper pull in the interior but it's eroded and not as shiny as it should be. I put Brasso on it but I don't think anything will make it look new.

 

[ladyraven65]

Some before and after:

Excellent job---love the color!

 

[whateve]

After photos: I thought I was pretty successful in getting the white substance off the back pocket until I took a photo and saw some still there (which was a disappointment.) I'm not sure what happened to the zipper pull in the interior but it's eroded and not as shiny as it should be. I put Brasso on it but I don't think anything will make it look new.

Good job! It looks great. The brass was probably very lightly plated. Any polishing could remove that plating so you probably can never get back to the original color.

 

[snowymittens]

I remove the straps and dunk them with the bag. For the wider, suede-backed straps, I lay them out flat to dry, and if there are dents in them I put a towel with weight on top of it to flatten the dents. For the narrower straps I just lay them out straight on a towel and turn them so they dry evenly. I start putting conditioner on when they're still damp.

Sonoma wrote on this thread a while back about a problem with a pebbled leather strap on a Sonoma bag, so those might require different treatment.

Thank you so much! Mine is one of those vintage bags with the suede lining so it should be pretty resilient! I'm starting out with the easy ones first and will definitely go for more b/c I like doing it =)

 

[Catbird9]

Thank you so much! Mine is one of those vintage bags with the suede lining so it should be pretty resilient! I'm starting out with the easy ones first and will definitely go for more b/c I like doing it =)

Me too! Looking forward to seeing pictures of your projects.

 

[sharesorsha]

Good job! It looks great. The brass was probably very lightly plated. Any polishing could remove that plating so you probably can never get back to the original color.

Thank you! I'm pretty happy with how well it cleaned up considering it was made in China. I'm carrying it around now. My next project is a glove-tanned leather purse made in the USA. It has a few ink marks on the outside. I'm debating on whether or not to try to make them less noticeable...if that's even possible. My fear is the ink will run when I dunk the bag.