My Tods rehab project

[aerinha]

My desire to do a rehab bag (after my first attempt turned out to be a fake) and to have a Tod’s d styling collided and I purchased this light tan/cream mini bag from The Real Real as my project bag. According to TRR, it’s problems were: discoloration on one side, pen marks, rubbed corners and peeling handles. According to me, it’s problems are: HEAVY perfume smell (this counts as an odor folks), discolored handles, pen marks, a small damaged section of edge coat on one handle and dirty corners (not abraded). The “discoloration” on the side turned out to be gunk that came off with a damp cloth.


I will say my decision to dye it guilt free was based on the discolored parts so now I’m questioning that, especially since the one end of the opening is tacked down and I’d have to get a dauber or paint brush in there trying to dye it to match the rest. Here are some before pics, I plan to post updates as I go.

 

[aerinha]

I did a test patch of the gray dye on the strap and instead of drying quickly and sticking, it was wet the next day after one coat, came off on my finger and then mostly wiped off with a damp cloth.

 

[sdkitty]

pretty bag....I like the color but understand you're dyeing it....GL

 

[aerinha]

pretty bag....I like the color but understand you're dyeing it....GL

Thanks. The jury is now out on dyeing it

 

[sdkitty]

Thanks. The jury is now out on dyeing it

if you can make it ok w/o dyeing I like the color

 

[aerinha]

if you can make it ok w/o dyeing I like the color

After cleaning it, I realized most of the issues were just dirt; however, in trying to remove the ink I created two white spots. Head smack. I want to see if I can fix them with leather paint and I would then be ok with the color. The dye plan was really becuase I thought it had discoloration. Now I need a plan B for the perfume smell as I was counting on the deglazing and dyeing to obliterate it.

 

[sdkitty]

After cleaning it, I realized most of the issues were just dirt; however, in trying to remove the ink I created two white spots. Head smack. I want to see if I can fix them with leather paint and I would then be ok with the color. The dye plan was really becuase I thought it had discoloration. Now I need a plan B for the perfume smell as I was counting on the deglazing and dyeing to obliterate it.

I think if you google odor or how to get rid of odor + purse forum you'll find talk about that

 

[aerinha]

I cleaned the bag with Lexol wipes, following up with damp and dry cloths per the instructions. It looked decent enough I was deciding against dye, but that left me with the ink marks I should have left alone. What I did diminished the ink, but an hour later I saw it removed color from the bag. I let it dry over night and then used Apple conditioner over the whole bag as I heard it might migrate some color back. To some degree it did, but not enough. It did freshen the bag and improve the lingering corner dirt though

The good side post all the above

The grubby corner from first post now much better

The handles are lighter though still stained

Here is my boo boo after conditioning, up close not that bad

Back a bit from it, its bad

Since my dye test patch was a fail, I ordered some leather paint to try to touch up the white spots.

 

[Shelby33]

What leather dye did you use?

 

[sdkitty]

I cleaned the bag with Lexol wipes, following up with damp and dry cloths per the instructions. It looked decent enough I was deciding against dye, but that left me with the ink marks I should have left alone. What I did diminished the ink, but an hour later I saw it removed color from the bag. I let it dry over night and then used Apple conditioner over the whole bag as I heard it might migrate some color back. To some degree it did, but not enough. It did freshen the bag and improve the lingering corner dirt though

The good side post all the above
View attachment 4388832
The grubby corner from first post now much better
View attachment 4388830
The handles are lighter though still stained
View attachment 4388831
Here is my boo boo after conditioning, up close not that bad
View attachment 4388828
Back a bit from it, its bad
View attachment 4388829
Since my dye test patch was a fail, I ordered some leather paint to try to touch up the white spots.

a lighter colored bag like that is going to show much more wear than a black or dark brown bag. Are you maybe being a bit fussy? If you had bought the bag new and carried it for a while would it look approximately as it does now?
From the pics is doesn't look bad at all to me. but you have to be happy

 

[aerinha]

What leather dye did you use?

I wanted to make it gray like Kate Middleton’s medium Tods, but gray dye is hard to come by. Tarrago makes it but Tarrago self shine isn’t dye, it’s a coating which I wasn’t down for . So I bought Angelus penetrating dye, which is supposed to be good. They only do gray in suede dye, but they said it would work on leather. My plan had been to coat the bag in the gray and then do a second coat of the gray suede dye mixed with black leather dye (the gray was really light) or to do the Tarrago gray over so if that chipped it was still gray under it.

I deglazed a patch on the shoulder strap, let it dry, the tested the gray dye. Online people do second coats in a half hour becaue Angelus is alcohol based and supposedly dries fast, I let mine sit for an hour, did a second coat and it wiped the first coat off. I left it over night and in the morning it stained my finger gray. A wet paper towel took it off the leather totally. Not really sure what happened there, but it put me off trying to mske it gray since I didn’t want to wreck it during deglazing and not be able to dye it after.

 

[aerinha]

a lighter colored bag like that is going to show much more wear than a black or dark brown bag. Are you maybe being a bit fussy? If you had bought the bag new and carried it for a while would it look approximately as it does now?
From the pics is doesn't look bad at all to me. but you have to be happy

No bag I buy new would end up like this . I have bone colored bags that still look like new. Overall I am content with how it cleaned up, I only planned to dye it because it supposedly came with color damage (it was just dirt). But the white spots I created are going to bug me, so I want to do something about them if I can. Sadly I could have lived with the stray pen line more than the white. My fault totally

 

[Shelby33]

I have used the tarrago self shine and it was great! Hasn't worn off even after months of heavy use.

 

[aerinha]

I have used the tarrago self shine and it was great! Hasn't worn off even after months of heavy use.

Could you still see the texture of the leather after using it? That was what scared me off it as others said it made the leather look too smooth.

 

[Shelby33]

Could you still see the texture of the leather after using it? That was what scared me off it as others said it made the leather look too smooth.

Yes can still see the texture. But I think your bag looks very good and you should try some Tarrago shoe cream to touch up those few areas. It comes in tons of colors, I love it.