Just ordered some dye to re-dye my Twiggy

A

AGinTO

O.G.
Nov 12, 2009
108
6
#1
I have a faded Balenciaga Twiggy that I bought on eBay ages ago. I haven't carried it as much as I'd like because it looks SO FADED! I don't even know what colour it used to be, maybe Cornflower?

Today I bought Fiebing's penetrating leather dye in TURQUOISE...I hope it's a good color for color restoration, more than anything. It seems most folks here have been re-dying their Bal's to BLACK, but I was hopeful to keep the colour the same or maybe a touch brighter!

I also purchased a "de-glazer" to remove any and all grime off my purse (the gals at Holt Renfrew told me to moisturize my bag with Lubriderm to revive its colour - and it always helped only temporarily). It's time to remove all those oils from the bag, and re-dye her!

I'll keep you all abreast of the progress here!
 

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#5
Earlier today I used a leather deglazer to prep my purse (remove waxes, oils, etc that can interfere with the dye's absorption), and then I put one coat of the Fiebings Turquoise alcohol-based dye on it. It was a pretty intense dye - much darker than I had anticipated, and it went on slightly unevenly. After doing a little bit of research I was advised to dilute the dye with equal parts alcohol and put on another coat... I'm just waiting for that coat to dry before I condition the purse! Hopefully the dye even out a little - but as you can see from the "before" pictures above, I really haven't got much to lose, right?
 
#7
Whoops - here are 2 pictures pre dyeing.

You can see the difference in color to the mirror, which was always in the interior pocket. I was hopeful to restore the whole bag to the color of the mirror, or a little bit brighter.
 

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#8
Here is it after 1 coat of Fiebing's Leather Dye in Turquoise

As you can see, the colour is WAY more intense than I had originally intended! But I love it! It was a bit uneven, so I added a second layer of diluted dye, then conditioned her.
 

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#9
Here is a close-up of the front of the bag, where you can see that the dye penetrated a little unevenly. No amount of buffing it out would lift off the excess dye which seemed to just sit at the top of the bag. This is why I decided to add a second layer of (diluted) dye to try and even her out.
 

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#13
Hey guys! Thanks for the feedback. I wanted to touch base about the bag.

1) The colour went on quite unevenly. I haven't even carried it since dyeing! It was quite bright in some areas, and a little lighter in other areas - even after I put the second coat of dye on. Also, the bag had "yellowed" a little bit in spots. My understanding is that "yellowing" is pretty much a permanent condition in leather. It's just the way it oxidized/was sun-exposed... unfortunately, the dye didn't cover up the yellowing. It didn't enhance it either, but the yellowing was still visible through the dye.

2) Moisturizing the bag didn't seem to help with the unevenness of the dye.

3) Yes the bag remained quite smooshy and soft. It had already lost a lot of its shine - even before I dyed it - as you can see in the two "before" pictures I uploaded further up in the thread. I was going to condition it again, but instead decided to give it another round or two of dye (as I had a whole second bottle of turquoise fiebings Dye left). Well, it was a nightmare. This time I didn't put a towel under the purse - just a black garbage bag. I don't know what the effect of the garbage bag on the absorption is - but it caused it to absorb differently! The parts of the bag that were resting on the plastic didn't have as much dye on them. So the bottoms, and about an inch and a half of the front and an inch-and-a-half of the back of the bag, are faded looking. So now I have a turquoise ombre bag! What a nightmare!

These dyes go on quite a bit darker (and maybe brighter) than you'd think - I wish I hadn't bought the turquoise fiebing's dye - but rather the Light Blue. Or I wish I had diluted the dye - or maybe been much more thorough with the deglazer to thoroughly THOROUGHLY clean the bag before dyeing (or all of the above!)

The verdict?

I've decided to do it all over again and just take my bag all the way to black. It'll be the easiest-to-carry colour - black goes with everything, right? I'm bummed about not having the light blue Bal anymore, but black is still okay... I'm still happy to have it in black. I'll just have to save up my money to buy another Bal in a Blue!

I'll keep you all updated of the transformation from Turquoise to Black! I'll document that here too :smile:
 
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#14
I used the Fiebings Light Blue which was DARK BLUE actually on my Grenadine bag. After one coat of Fiebings I put two coats of Tarrago Self Shine Dye which is not a penetrating dye but I loved the result. I have uploaded the picture here somewhere. I used the bag a handful of times and had no problem. So if you haven't already dyed it black, I would suggest trying this out. However if you tend to scratch your bags a lot here and there, have in mind that the Tarrago is going to let the undertone show, which is the reason I used the blue Fiebings. So that even if it happens blue is coming underneath and not pink. I don't use this bag a lot, it is not my workhorse but I use it in the evenings sometimes. So try it out if you wish and have in mind that at least with Tarrago the colors are the same with what you see. I used Daphne and it came out like that. Also it dries so fast and you can retouch so easily that even if you scratch you won't mind. The color stayed on everything, the stitching as well as the kote edges.
 
#15
I actually purchased the Fiebing's Penetrating Dye in black. I'll deglaze the bag again, dye it black, then when it dries, I'll use the Tarrago Self-Shine dye in black to layer overtop.

From what I've read in the forums, the Fiebing's black dye had a bronze undertone to it, so hopefully the existing turquoise dye will cut out some of that brassiness.

I'll document the procedure here with lots of pictures. Hopefully the bag turns out beautifully!
 
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