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Hello! I'm looking for help/advice to fix up a schott nyc vintage bomber jacket since im admittedly very VERY inexperienced with any sort of leatherworking. I got it from a close friend who has had it for a while and has done his best to "keep up" with the damage the leather has sustained through tough love. Im mainly worried as through my research sheepskin seems to be pretty sensitive and the tears aren't the best. They're covered by leather patches atm but they're pretty distracting and meant as a momentary solution. Im not sure if I should see someone to fix them, if theyre beyond repair or will be far too expensive to do so currently, or if i should just paint over the patches and rougher spots? I'll enclose some photos, so please let me know what the best course of action is and dont hesitate to let me know if more info is needed. Cheers!

Hi everyone, I’m making a custom Lambskin jacket and I’d like to paint on it and have it last a long time. Any recommendations on technique and paint? Thanks!

I run a site that mostly discusses leather jackets, but there are plenty of other topics. I am looking for the science behind leather shrinking, and what a realistic possibility of stretching leather back into shape would be. I do not want information that is copied and pasted from Google where someone says it can be done, but was hoping to get real life examples from the expert leather workers on this site. I have personally worked with leather jackets for a number of years and have successfully shrunk leather jackets as much as a full size by soaking the leather, then applying heat. My findings are that the majority of the shrinkage occurs near the end of the drying process when the jacket goes from damp to really dry. I have seen little change occur in the "soaking wet" to "damp" stage. I believe that leather shrinkage is due to the shrinkage of the leather fibers on a cellular level which occurs when the leather is dehydrated to such a degree that the fibers physically shrink. At this point, I believe they are 'set' and cannot be lengthened again without damage to the fibers. Maybe it is more accurate to say that I have not experienced any successful stretching techniques that have been permanent. I also believe that there is some distortion to the leather as stretching leather after it has been shrunk or dried out, actually breaks some of the leather fibers allowing the leather to appear to have stretched. I have seen jackets develop pulls and thin areas from overzealous stretching. Again, this topic pertains only to leather jackets, as we have members of our site who have shrunk their jackets accidentally and are looking to stretch them out again. People have put heavy items on the sleeve ends or loaded the arms up with soup cans to try to stretch the sleeves. The results were slight and temporary as the leather wants to revert back to the shrunken size. I also believe that in the case of leather jackets, too many people confuse softening with stretching. A stiff jacket feels tight, and as it softens, it feels looser, so the assumption is that it stretched. Thoughts and opinions are very welcomed. I believe a jacket cannot be stretched back into shape and for the sake of some site members, I would like to be proven wrong.

Went to Magic in Vegas in February with new collection : You can see the whole collection here: counterego.com The website is back: leatherfx.com and the other one is: printingonleather.com We do digital printing onto leather - serving fashion, acsessories and upholstery industry worldwide. Here is a link to a little write-up about our company: http://read.uberflip.com/i/88855 on page 60 Here is another sample of our work:

Hello folks. I'm happy to say this is my first post here! This looks like a great place to learn all about leather working. So here goes... I've owned this plain black leather jacket for years, the sleeves are a little long on me so it spent most of it's life in the closet. Recently, I've gotten the itch to buy another leather jacket. I pulled the old jacket out and was thinking about selling it. I wouldn't get much for it. So, I got this crazy idea to modify this jacket into the jacket I want. The leather is in great condition, it is heavy weight and it is a plain design so taking in seams here or there won't be so hard. For measuring and reference, I have 2 other leather jackets I can lift measurements from. I'm sure I'll run into technical issues later on down the line but they won't be anything this forum can't help me solve. The problem is, I don't have money for a sewing machine, only basic hand tools at this point in time. Can what I want to attempt be done with hand tools? It doesn't matter to me if it takes me months to rebuild by hand as long as the stitching looks straight and professional. If it can be done with hand tools, what are the minimum tools I will need to pull this off? Thanks in advance for your help. EDIT: It would be helpful to let you all know what I plan on doing. 1. Shorten the length of the jacket 2. Add zippers to the wrist areas 3. Tighten up the sleeves so they hug my arms more 4. Shorten the sleeves 5. Tighten up the body of the jacket, making it more form fitting