Re-Lining A Louis Vuitton Bucket Bag

[YinTx]

So a good friend asked me to repair her LV Bucket bag, as the "Alcantara" lining had turned sticky and started peeling, as these purses are apparently apt to do. She wanted to maintain all the original leather pieces so the "patina" on the Vaschetta leather would match, which made repairing difficult. She also wanted a canvas style lining, so I used a cream colored Duck Cloth. all the hardware had to be scrubbed clean of the sticky material that came off of the lining. I used Fil Au Chinois 532 Jaune thread, saddle stitched. For the lining to LV canvas, I used 138 Bonded Poly thread, stitched by hand again. Comments and suggestions welcomed!

YinTx

[Thor]

Looking very nice Yin. Never done that before, so here's a question for you. Is that extra step of stitching the liner actually needed or wouldn't it just do if it would be stitched along with the edge?

[YinTx]

I suspect stitching the binding on would do the trick but I attempted to be true to the original construction as much as I could. I suppose it could help take the stress off of the binding stitch, and prevent it from pulling through the thin leather there, but not sure. This was the first one I have done like this too, so I'm no expert. Perhaps someone that does this regularly could chime in?

YinTx

[Kevin]

I think because it's too fussy to hold that many layers together at one time. You have 5 things to keep straight. Sewing it twice seems like more work, but you're not having to fight every stitch.

[YinTx]

Considering I had to line up all the original holes to stitch by hand, I did have to fight every stitch, but I think you are on to something there. The original appeared to use basting tape to hold the liner to the bag before stitching, and then the leather binding was added at the end. I did lightly glue the liner to the canvas, then stitched, then had to stitch the binder without glue in order to properly line up the holes. Not sure how I would do it differently, but I wasn't entirely happy with the way the binder seated - not as straight as I would have liked. If I could have figured a good way to glue it into place, I would have.

There was a whole lot of trying to hold a lot of things in line prior to stitching, and not a simple task. Definitely a job for a machine and some glue, and not try to retain all the original bits!

YinTx

[grmnsplx]

I watched a video of a very similar repair last week:

[YinTx]

Yes, I watched that video too while I was trying to figure some things out, very cool. Wish I had matching thread and machine to match the stitch pattern in the LV pieces! Instead, I had to figure out how to do straight stitches where they were supposed to be straight...

(not sure how to get this right side up, but this is the top binding leather)

And do slanted stitches where they were supposed to be slanted...

I think I did ok... learned a few things along the way.

I like how they used leather for the lining, and I wanted to, but the customer wanted the material that you see...

the original material is not leather, but instead a coated cloth that eventually gets sticky and peels off.

YinTx