baumgrenze

Aaron, Thank you for replying. I'm glad I requested notification. I reviewed my post and notice that my attempt at composing in Word and pasting to the board left me with a bunch of unseparated words. My apologies. Can I edit post over a year old? If so, I will clean it up. I am interested in a 'creative repair' that will allow occasional use, certainly no more than once a year, perhaps for 10-15 years. Below are some some photo thumbnail links from ImageShack: As I attempted to say before, the garment leather is ~0.06" thick; both facesare split faces. The repair material I have is ~0.021" thick and has one suede and one top grain face. Does my proposal to line the lederhosen with new leather using Barge Cement make any sense? The leather is dry but still fairly supple. As I noted on one of the photos, the area around the worst tear is fragile and easily torn. How would I condition suede leather? Would conditioning make repairs using adhesive more difficult? I hope the photos make the task I face clearer. I am open to suggestions from anyone with experience is this kind of repair. Thanks, John

I have an adult sized pair of lederhosen that were purchasedfor me in 1955 in Heilbronn, Germany, in a 'large' department store. They arein need of repair. There are several tears in the leather. Let me hasten to point out two problems that occur to me. 1) 1955 was early in the post-war period in Germany. Qualityleather and even tanning materials may not have been easy to obtain then. 2) 1955 was 56 years ago. The leather they were made from is'old.' It is not clear to me how it was tanned. They are traditionally constructed from 4 panels of suedeleather ~0.06" thick. This means that there are a front and back seam, and twoside seams. The seams are simple plain seams with the rough side out. Each hasa narrow strip of leather between the panel pieces, that is, the seam is 3layers thick. The leather feels 'dried out' to the hand. I have a nice piece of supple top-grain leather 0.021"thick. Does it make sense for me to try to repair these using Barge Cement toapply a patch made from the top-grain leather? If so, how much larger than thetear does the patch need to be? At present, there is a 1" tear across the rear seam, in thecrotch, just 1" from the seam that joins the front and back panels along theinseam. There is a longer tear, 5" long, just to the front of one inseam. Muchof it lies just next to the inseam. Might it make sense to undo this seam,apply the patch, and restitch the inseam? The third tear, 1 " long, is on theback panel, an inch from where the pocket meets the side seam. There are manyplaces where the leather that is proud of the outer face of the garment, alonga seam, has cracked down to the seam line. I no longer wear the lederhosen frequently,but when I do put them on, I do not want to be embarrassed. I'm open to anyone's suggestions. What are the rules regarding attaching images, i.e., format,size, etc. I have posted photos on ImageShack to other forums, if that ispermitted on this forum. If so, is there a preferred format? I've noticed that ImageShackgenerates several. Thanks, baumgrenze