Coach Rehab and Rescue Club

[Fashionstar101]

It could be grease. I can't really tell if it is a stain, uneven fading, or a natural color variation. It looks minor in the pictures. A bath and conditioning might get rid of it. Is it really noticeable IRL?

Could it natural leather variation? It is smooth and does not come off on my fingers... It does show if you are looking within a few feet. But minor. I want to make sure it is just the purse, otherwise I want to return it (in the sellers pics I could not see it!! Annoying!) have you seen this before? Plmk! Thanks

 

[vintageb1]

I have a couple of questions regarding rehab of a saddle pouch (style #9585) in British Tan.
First, I inadvertently spilled some conditioner on it (Chamberlain's leather milk) and I freaked out at the dark blotches. I tried smoothing them out with a little more conditioner but decided to just let it dry and hope the blotches fade! Has this happened to anyone else?

Second, I'm wondering if I can do a full bath on this bag. While it is glove-tanned leather, it seems to be a heavier quality then my other late 80's-90's coach bags. It is in good shape, if a little dirty, so I originally was going to just try conditioning with CPR, but now that there is those blotches I'm thinking I should just dunk it.

Thank you!

 

[whateve]

I have a couple of questions regarding rehab of a saddle pouch (style #9585) in British Tan.
First, I inadvertently spilled some conditioner on it (Chamberlain's leather milk) and I freaked out at the dark blotches. I tried smoothing them out with a little more conditioner but decided to just let it dry and hope the blotches fade! Has this happened to anyone else?

Second, I'm wondering if I can do a full bath on this bag. While it is glove-tanned leather, it seems to be a heavier quality then my other late 80's-90's coach bags. It is in good shape, if a little dirty, so I originally was going to just try conditioning with CPR, but now that there is those blotches I'm thinking I should just dunk it.

Thank you!

IMO, you can dunk it safely. I dunked my late 70s slim tote and it is super heavy duty leather. I've never used Chamberlain's but I often put conditioner on by squeezing a puddle on the bag and then spreading it around. I don't think it ever ended up blotchy, or if it did, more conditioner fixed it.

 

[Two.time.bags]

IMO, you can dunk it safely. I dunked my late 70s slim tote and it is super heavy duty leather. I've never used Chamberlain's but I often put conditioner on by squeezing a puddle on the bag and then spreading it around. I don't think it ever ended up blotchy, or if it did, more conditioner fixed it.

I agree. I dunked a tan Saddle Pouch and was really pleased with the results. I don't have the before pics but it was quite dry and faded. Here it is after. I used Leather Therapy and Black Rock.

 

[vintageb1]

IMO, you can dunk it safely. I dunked my late 70s slim tote and it is super heavy duty leather. I've never used Chamberlain's but I often put conditioner on by squeezing a puddle on the bag and then spreading it around. I don't think it ever ended up blotchy, or if it did, more conditioner fixed it.

Thank you Whateve! I will brave it!

 

[vintageb1]

I agree. I dunked a tan Saddle Pouch and was really pleased with the results. I don't have the before pics but it was quite dry and faded. Here it is after. I used Leather Therapy and Black Rock.

More inspiration!-- that is exactly my bag and yours looks beautiful. I don't have Therapy but I have CPR and Blackrock's so I will try those. Thanks so much for your help!

 

[mrk2014]

I love this summery purse. I've been looking for one!

Pen ink is almost impossible to shift from leather. I've had some success using rubbing alcohol but you need to apply it really carefully just to the ink to dissolve it. I think your mark is under the flap so I wouldn't try to remove any more but would rather cover the mark and the faded area with some matching acrylic craft paint.

For the leather I would wipe it all over again with water to make sure all the soap is rinsed off and then when it is nearly dry I'd condition it all over with Leather Therapy or CPR (if I could get it but I can't), leave it to soak in and then do a second coat. (Don't get the conditioner on the fabric as it will probably stain it).

Hopefully that will even out the marks. It will make it look darker to start with but it should dry back to the lighter colour.

Good luck.

PS I'm a cat lover too but my kids are so allergic we can't keep one.

Thank you for your advice.

I will leave the ink mark alone and try the acrylic paint. For the leather I have at home some Penguin lotion I used for some boots, would that be OK to try or I should get the Leather Therapy or CPR ones? Is one of those better or similar?

 

[mrk2014]

I never thought I would like cats until my daughter's friend gave her one. We bonded. So I'm a cat lover too.

I rehabbed a purse like this. The tan leather is vachetta so it is extremely hard to get it new looking again. I lightly sanded it which helped a little but not a lot. I'm not sure what you can do other than dye it, and I don't even know if you can dye vachetta.

You've learned the hard way that it is often better to leave ink marks alone. I think you can cover this pretty easily with paint.

This is not an easy purse for your first rehab!

Well, there you can see how newbie I am at this, I love vintage bags but till I found this forum I never thought to get one and make it (or try to) beautiful again.

This purse looked just overall dirty nothing extreme, so I thought it would be easy, silly me!

It I manage to "fix it", I will post the pictures. Thanks again everyone!

 

[jenniebob81]

Hi everyone,
I'm new on here and hope I'm doing this right! I just bought a lovely Coach Saffiano tote on ebay for a very low price because of a tear in the front of the bag. I had ideas on how I was going to try and fix this but wondered if you have any experience fixing a tear in saffiano leather. Any advice would be great, thanks!!

 

[Two.time.bags]

Thank you for your advice.

I will leave the ink mark alone and try the acrylic paint. For the leather I have at home some Penguin lotion I used for some boots, would that be OK to try or I should get the Leather Therapy or CPR ones? Is one of those better or similar?

I have never heard of Penguin lotion so I don't know what's in it. Avoid products with silicon, lanolin, and waxes. CPR and Leather Therapy are mentioned often here so that's what I would use.

 

[catthecurious]

I would try spot cleaning with the coach fabric cleaner first, I have found the Coach sateen fabric to be very resilient and cleans up very well with fabric cleaner. If that doesn't work you could try spot cleaning with ivory dish soap. Good luck!

Yes, katev, I think starting with spot cleaning is the simplest way, it totally makes sense to me.

You might try some Resolve Multi-fabric cleaner on it in an inconspicuous place. I use it all the time on fabric linings and it works wonders. I have never tried it on something like white satin though.

Great advice, Cameochi, never tried Resolve for bag cleaning (well, never tried A LOT of things )

Don't use chlorine. This is probably polyester, and chlorine won't work and will probably discolor it. I would try Soilove and liquid soap on it. Without knowing what caused the stains, it is just a guess as to which cleaner would work the best. I would probably be afraid to dunk because the leather might bleed onto the fabric. You might be able to test that by wetting the strap and laying it on a paper towel to see if any color comes off.

Will do, Whateve. Plus, it's not pure white, so using chlorine will totally ruin it.


Thank you, everyone! If I don't destroy it, I'll share the results with you

 

[Two.time.bags]

Hi everyone,
I'm new on here and hope I'm doing this right! I just bought a lovely Coach Saffiano tote on ebay for a very low price because of a tear in the front of the bag. I had ideas on how I was going to try and fix this but wondered if you have any experience fixing a tear in saffiano leather. Any advice would be great, thanks!!

Wow this is really ambitious project and probably should be done by a professional, however if you think you can tackle it this is what I would do. Firstly you are going to need to get to the back of the tear so you will need to undo a seam of the lining. Then you need to stick a piece of thickish fabric eg calico over the back of the tear using a craft glue suitable for leather or even PVA glue. On the front make sure the edges of the tear are butted well together. When the glue is dry you could try a leather filler. I've just bought some Leatherique crack filler to fill some pin holes in cowhide. I haven't finished it yet but I think it will be OK. The crack filler looks like and smells like runny gap filler that you use to fill cracks in walls before painting. You have to apply it really carefully in thin layers and allow 30 minutes between coats and build it up unitl the crack is filled. Then you leave it to dry thoroughly and sand off any excess (try to avoid having excess). Then you will need to cover the white filler with a matching leather refinisher or craft paint may work. Then you re-sew the lining.

Good luck.

 

[whateve]

I agree. I dunked a tan Saddle Pouch and was really pleased with the results. I don't have the before pics but it was quite dry and faded. Here it is after. I used Leather Therapy and Black Rock.

Beautiful! I've avoided this style of bag because I think it would be inconvenient to have to buckle and unbuckle all the time. Do you just leave it unbuckled, and slide the end into the keeper? I have a lovely Dooney that I never use because of the buckle closure. You can tell the previous owner never left it buckled because there is a dent in the keeper from the prong.

 

[Fashionstar101]

It could be grease. I can't really tell if it is a stain, uneven fading, or a natural color variation. It looks minor in the pictures. A bath and conditioning might get rid of it. Is it really noticeable IRL?

Could it natural leather variation? It is smooth and does not come off on my fingers... It does show if you are looking within a few feet. But minor. I want to make sure it is just the purse, otherwise I want to return it (in the sellers pics I could not see it!! Annoying!) have you seen this before? Plmk! Thanks

 

[whateve]

Could it natural leather variation? It is smooth and does not come off on my fingers... It does show if you are looking within a few feet. But minor. I want to make sure it is just the purse, otherwise I want to return it (in the sellers pics I could not see it!! Annoying!) have you seen this before? Plmk! Thanks

I don't know. It's hard to tell from pictures. I don't have any British tan bags at the moment, but I think that when they are brand new, usually the color is uniform. This might happen with age but I don't know if it is a stain. However, I wouldn't ever expect perfect from a near vintage bag. Some of my bags from this era have visible leather scars that were there when they made the bag, but they are the same color as the rest.