Just wanted to share with other what worked for me.
For dirty vachetta, I found that alcohol free baby wipes work perfectly. I baby my bags so my vachetta doesn't get heavily soiled so baby wipes truly and gently gets rid of any dirt that does accumulate over time. Then, I let the vachetta dry.
I follow up with Obenauf's Heavy Duty LP. I buy this from
Amazon. I get an old white tshirt, wrap a section of it around two fingers, rub a small amount from the jar onto the shirt and then apply it to the vachetta in small sections, circular motion. Just gently buff it in. I let it dry for a few hours and usually do another coat. I did this on clean 6 month old vachetta and it softened up the vachetta just slightly and made the straps more comfortable. And, it only patina'd the strap slightly.
Now this is the part that required so much trial and error for me. Hopefully this will help someone out. I bought an older Hudson PM that was in excellent condition. I bought it for an amazing price, had it authenticated and everything about it was perfect. Except for this old, musty smell. The seller was from Hawaii and the bag looked virtually unused so it must have sat around, untouched for awhile. It didn't smell moldy, just musty. I tried wiping it down with wipes, with water, lightly with lysol wipes, airing it out by windows for weeks and blasting it with a hair drying after lightly spraying the alcantara lining with vinegar. The worst for me was filling it with coffee beans. Afterwards, it smelled heavily of coffee yet musty. YUCK.
What worked? Filling all of the compartments with baking soda. Kept the baking soda in there for two weeks. Dumped it out and refilled it. Kept it in there for another week. Dumped all of it out. Then, wiped it down with a damp towel. Air dried. This made the most difference but still not fully gone. I then lightly sprayed the Honest Company Air+ Fabric Freshener in Lavender Vanilla. The Lavender Vanilla scent didn't linger for a long time. But, the musty smell is officially all gone. DH confirmed just in case my nose was going wonky.
Sorry for the long post. But, I truly do hope this helps someone out.
