Mulesaw Report post Posted May 8 (edited) This time at home, a customer asked if I could have a look at her Louis Vuitton bag where the upper folded leather edge had almost completely deteriorated. I had some light beige pig skin that looked like it was the same that was used originally, and I googled to see if LV used pigskin, and the page I found confirmed this. A trip to the local sewing shop to find a matching colour of yellow and then it was just a matter of carefully removing the old one and sewing on a new edge. The customer had at one point renewed the closure strap with some fairly thin leather strap. She asked if I could see if I could find something a bit beefier. After some Googling I found a picture of the same model of bag, and it looked as it was originally made with a sewn closure strap matching the upper edge. End result: A happy customer and a bag that can be used for a couple of years more. Edited May 8 by Mulesaw Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NatesLeatherGds Report post Posted May 8 Nice! Very brave of you indeed! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DieselTech Report post Posted May 9 Nice work. Great repair work. Looks nice. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mulesaw Report post Posted May 9 6 hours ago, NatesLeatherGds said: Nice! Very brave of you indeed! Thanks, I have no idea if it is an original LV bag. In Denmark most people automatically assume that if you have a bag like this, it is a fake that is bought in Thailand. But it was really well made, so it might have been real. Brgds Jonas Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mulesaw Report post Posted May 9 5 hours ago, DieselTech said: Nice work. Great repair work. Looks nice. Thanks I like it when I am able to make a nice repair job. The customer heard about me from a friend of hers, whose bag I have repaired about 2 years ago. Also some LV bag as far as I remember. Brgds Jonas Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Josephclements Report post Posted Wednesday at 08:12 PM Can you tell me more, did you sew over the old holes or move over and make new holes, did you hand sew it? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mulesaw Report post Posted Thursday at 05:35 PM 21 hours ago, Josephclements said: Can you tell me more, did you sew over the old holes or move over and make new holes, did you hand sew it? Hi Josephclements I sewed over the existing holes, but I doubt that I hit all of them. I didn't want to cut anything of the top of the bag, so I just made a 1:1 replica of the worn folded edge. The sewing was done on my old Singer patcher, but I think it could be done on a regular household sewing machine if you put a leather needle in one of those. I tried to match the stitch length as much as possible to the original stitch length, but I only did that for the optical appearance. The folded edge isn't under a lot of stress, so I am not worried about that the old holes are still under it. It is purely there as a nice way to cover the outside and the lining of the bag. As far as I remember, I used double sided tape for holding the folded edge in place while sewing it. That really helps a lot so it doesn't wander all over the place. In order not to mar the surface of the pig skin, I put some small rubber hoses over the serrated feet on the feed dog of the patcher. The only thing to observe if you ever do that, is that the grip becomes a bit less, so you might need to assist your feed of the material a bit more compared to when you don't cover the feet in rubber hose. I wouldn't want to hand sew something like this since I am not able to make the stitching as consistent as the sewing machine, and uneven stitching on a bag like this wouldn't look good in my opinion. For the yellow thread, I just matched the colour the best I could, and then I purchased a "heavy duty" sewing thread at the local sewing shop. Brgds Jonas Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Josephclements Report post Posted Thursday at 06:11 PM 34 minutes ago, Mulesaw said: Hi Josephclements I sewed over the existing holes, but I doubt that I hit all of them. I didn't want to cut anything of the top of the bag, so I just made a 1:1 replica of the worn folded edge. The sewing was done on my old Singer patcher, but I think it could be done on a regular household sewing machine if you put a leather needle in one of those. I tried to match the stitch length as much as possible to the original stitch length, but I only did that for the optical appearance. The folded edge isn't under a lot of stress, so I am not worried about that the old holes are still under it. It is purely there as a nice way to cover the outside and the lining of the bag. As far as I remember, I used double sided tape for holding the folded edge in place while sewing it. That really helps a lot so it doesn't wander all over the place. In order not to mar the surface of the pig skin, I put some small rubber hoses over the serrated feet on the feed dog of the patcher. The only thing to observe if you ever do that, is that the grip becomes a bit less, so you might need to assist your feed of the material a bit more compared to when you don't cover the feet in rubber hose. I wouldn't want to hand sew something like this since I am not able to make the stitching as consistent as the sewing machine, and uneven stitching on a ag like this wouldn't look good in my opinion. For the yellow thread, I just matched the colour the best I could, and then I purchased a "heavy duty" sewing thread at the local sewing shop. Brgds Jonas Thanks for the help, Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
