Regarding the photos below, I told my sister I’d try to fix her fancy purse that she bought on a recent foreign trip. Apparently, her very-good-dog did a not-so-good thing and thought it was a chew toy.
Any advice on the best way to fix it? Anyone willing to coach me?
This isn’t a suggestion for an actual fix – I suspect no “fix” will ever leave it looking like it was, but would only likely provide the most minimal cosmetic concealment while providing actual structural support across the rip, but our resident leather experts can comment – but has she considered contacting store where bought or person who made and see if a replacement strap might be available?
Regrettably, she’d have to fly back to Tuscany, Italy to do that. Thanks for the suggestion, though.
Do you have any idea who(m) our resident experts are?
My thought is to somehow overlap the broken ends and stitch them together using Thor or to chop off the short end and rivet a new end to it. But am I close to the right approach?
Postal services, phone, HAM radio… just a few of the ways one might make contact with distant parties without going there…
I think so. But, to answer the preceding Q, the folks I always turn/listen to on leather-related stuff are, in no particular order, @jnorine, @HankCowdog, and @Webdevel.
Based on what I see in the photos, this is how I’d fix that.
First I’d cut the ends clean at the tear.
I’d melt the stitching so it does not come apart.
I’d finish the two ends, and add edge color that matches the rest of the strap.
I’d add a ring or square ring and loop each end throught it riveted like in the picture attached.
This way it matches the rest of the construction of the bag and might even look intentional.
Clever. I’ll ask my sister if that’s how she wants to move forward.
If so, I’ll be in touch later with more questions.
Thanks for stepping up with the/a solution.
DT
That’s my thought as well: rather than try to invisibly repair the cut, insert a brass accent at that point.
Option two would be to fabricate a new strap to replace the whole of the current strap.
Option three would be to unstitch about 2” from either side of the cut and shorten one end of either side such that the cut was offset between layers. Skive the leather (or at least cut at a 45 degree angle to the surface), align the overlapped ends, glue with Barge contact cement, and restitch using the existing stitch holes.
This awesome ASCII art should clarify:
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You could try option 3 first, as all it costs is time, then try option 1 if not happy with the results, and try option 2 as a last resort.
Key is to unstitch enough to allow for a strong, staggered join.
Option 4 - fly back to Italy and buy a new purse.
Thanks to all of you for your input and help.
I wound up going to DMS last night to explore what equipment we had, and a very nice and helpful guy named John did the repair for us to my sister’s satisfaction. It involved using some glue and a few small steel/silver-colored rivets, which I still need to figure out how to pay for.
These are the kinds of interactions that make DMS such a magical place. The people here are such an amazing resource!
