Major Repair Work Help

[jimmy eng]

Hi folks. A lady asked me to try and salvage (which is an understatement!) her vintage handbag which has been mauled by her dog. There's two large chunks bitten out of the bag flap which I could put some sort of patch on (they're roughly in the same place on opposite sides), deep bite marks on one corner of the flap and a lot off scratches all over the bag.

I'm not too sure on how to go with the bite and scratch marks mostly.

[jimmy eng]

Sorry about the giant size of the photos, I don't know how to resize them yet. If anyone wants to know, the bag label says Made in France for Harrods (no company label). It's a pretty nice bag that is similar to a Hermes Constance bag shape. The stitching is spaced out which I thought was unusual.

Any advice is appreciated even if it is to give it back to the dog! She's a new friend I met at the markets where I sell my stuff but she's moving in 16 days to Amsterdam so I thought I might see if I can do something with it.

Edited November 22, 2011 by jimmy eng

[busted]

Hi folks. A lady asked me to try and salvage (which is an understatement!) her vintage handbag which has been mauled by her dog. There's two large chunks bitten out of the bag flap which I could put some sort of patch on (they're roughly in the same place on opposite sides), deep bite marks on one corner of the flap and a lot off scratches all over the bag.

I'm not too sure on how to go with the bite and scratch marks mostly.

Jimmy, I think the easiest would be to make a new one. I don't see how you could put on a patch that would look nice. Good luck.

[BillB]

Jimmy - You have a couple of choices:

1. Try to match the dye color and re-dye the ares that have been chewed on. Then, apply a finish across the whole bag to re-establish the finish. This may make the ares scratched and chewed on look like heavy wear areas.

2. Before doing #1 above, examine the bag to determine the assembly process so you know how to put it back together. Then disassemble the full bag. Cut and finish new pieces for the ones that have to be replace due to the extent of the chewed areas. Then re-assemble.

3. As recommended by "busted" start from scratch and make a new one.

Which path you take should be discussed with the owner so that they understand that it will never look the the original and might cost more to repair than to make or buy a new one. Repairing can cost more due to the extensive labor involved. If the owner is really attached to the "original" then they may be happy with #1 above, but make them part of the decision process.

Just my thoughts on the problem.

BillB

[TwinOaks]

Jimmy, the reason that stitching looks unusual is that it isn't machine sewn. That's a running stitch, and it's done by hand. I agree that the customer needs to be fully involved in the decision process, but I don't think you'll be able to do much with the appearance of the scratches. From what I can see, the grain of the leather has been damaged, and there's not much to be done about it except distress the rest of it to try and match. That's just my opinion, of course, and Bill may have some ideas about it that have never occurred to me.

Regarding the missing pieces and severely damaged corners: I can think of two ways to fix that. First way is to cut some patches that will cover a bit more than the affected area and make decorative panels to cover them. They should be symmetrical and should look like part of the design. An old architect's saying is "if you can't hide it, show it off"....or something like that.

The second way to fix the problem of missing leather is to cut the purse and make it narrower by an equal amount on each side.

Good luck on the project, and keep us informed of how you repair it.

[jimmy eng]

Cheers everyone for the advice. In the back of my mind I thought the rescue was a bit ambitious but I'll let her know the options. Maybe she might be happy with just patching up the holes.

Busted, I thought a rectangular patch with the same stitching would look appropriate mimicking the shape though the only concern I have is visually the bag flap will be a bit too 'busy' and top heavy.

BillB, I didn't think of taking the bag apart and redyeing the whole thing. I'm always trying to find the shortest way to the solution (tunnel brain)!

Twinoaks, I thought the stitching was a running stitch, I didn't think that you'd use it as a more than something decorative. Doesn't seem as strong but I guess the gluing the edges helps.

[jimmy eng]

I told my mate Nissa what the options were and she said to go ahead with patching the missing pieces but don't bother with the whole restoration so I made a border with a corner miter for the sides and stitched it on today. I think it suits the shape of the bag. I didn't have the exact shade and I haven't learned how to dye well yet (just concentrating on stitching at the moment). My handling is a bit rough so I guess it contributed to making it look apart of the bag! Plus I'm pretty hungover.

What I used was kangaroo leather and bulked up the chewed areas with two pieces of leather slotted into the flap then loosely cemented the front and back patches onto the flap and did a running stitch along the pieces. One thing I didn't anticipate was the bag handle has a metal bar bracing it to the bag and had to do improvised stitching on where the metal bar was in my stitching path. I only stitched on the top patch and not through all the layers and then stitched only on the bottom patch and then continued to sew through all the layers (sort of a z formation from the side). Then I glued the 'fake' stitching areas down since they weren't holding anything down and tapped the stitches with a hammer.

Is this what you would have done?

[AndyL1]

I'd say you did a great job! The patch looks like it came that way.

Cheers,

Andy

[BillB]

Looks Good. And a good solution to a tough problem.

BillB

[jimmy eng]

Thanks fellas. The only issue I have with what leather I've used is that it will age differently to the rest of the bag. But I doubt that she'll use the bag that often seeing that it's still scratched up. But I sent her the photos of it and she loves it so now I just have to make a wallet for her boyfriends' Christmas present.