Repairs and strap shortening on purses, bags and briefcases.

Purses, bags and briefcases all have a few things in common. They all get placed on the floor, tossed, on the car seat or floorboard, kicked under a desk, rub against our clothing while being carried, have straps and zippers and clasps. All of these things open up these articles of leather products for all sorts of repair possibilities and upkeep. All of the tossing kicking, placing on the floor and rubbing against our clothing can damage the finish and remove some of the color by scuffing the leather. Also, you may end up with cuts or tears in the leather as well as seams wearing our or the stitching just breaking. The straps, zippers and clasps have their own set of issues that can cause you headaches. I will cover each of these issues and address how you could fix it yourself if possible or recommend taking it to a shoe repair to have it fixed.

As with shoes and boots, purses, bags and briefcases need to be kept conditioned to protect the leather. Waterproofing will also help protect the leather from damage and even fading. However, with day to day use as we all know, these types of bags sustain many types of damage from small cuts and scuffs to large tears and even holes. Now the large tears and holes would require a skilled craftsman such as a shoe repairmen like myself or my brothers. There are many skilled leather craftsmen out there in shoe repair shops and leather repair businesses around the world, all you have to do is check around and ask questions. Just do not give up if one or two repair people tell you that they do not work on your type of leather product. I have worked on some very strange leather products in my past. With the small cuts and scuffs, you can get a tube of contact cement for leather to glue the cut down and clean off the excess glue off the surface after it dries. It usually will rub off, just be sure to rub it the direction of the cut so that you do not rub the cut open again.

 Scuffs on your leather can be smoothed out with polish in some cases depending on how rough the scuff is and how much of the color has been scuffed off. If you can polish the scuff out, take you leather article to a shoe repair with you to match the color to a polish. Do not use to much polish! Rub the polish on in small circles spreading it out and rubbing it in until it is dull and there is no excess polish on the surface. Do not try to polish the entire purse, bag or briefcase at one once, do it in stages or areas. Once you have put polish over the entire area you are working on, use a horse hair polishing brush or a clean cotton t-shirt to buff the polish to a shine. Now take a clean cotton t-shirt or rag and rebuff the article to ensure that there is no excess polish that could rub off or transfer to your clothing. Then use a waterproof spray or a lite spray wax shine (MASTER SHINE) for leather to seal the polish.

 If the scuff is extremely bad, you have a couple of choices. Your easiest choice is to find a shoe repair that recolors leather or refinishes leather. This is basically dying or painting the leather with specialized dyes and paints for leather. They will match the color as close as possible and recondition it after the refinishing is complete to ensure the new finish is not sticky and very flexible with the leather it is now apart of. You can do it yourself as well. Go to a shoe repair, take your leather article to match a color and ask about leather paint. Buy some leather cleaner such as thinner or spot remover to clean the entire surface of the article before you start and allow to dry completely. There are two major brands that I like: MELTONIAN and Nu-Life. Both of these brands are specialized for leather and I prefer to use TANNERY leather conditioner spray as my conditioner of choice after the paint has dried. With the bad scuffs, mist just enough paint directly onto the scuff to make it a little wet and rub it into the scuff with your finger tip until it is smooth and not wet looking. Completely cover the entire scuff mark in this manner to replace the color and smooth out the scuffed leather. The paint will help fill in the rough leather to bring back the smooth surface. Let this dry for a few minutes and then lightly mist the area with paint holding the can about 6 to 10 inches from the leather. AVOID WET RUNS IN THE PAINT.  Paint the leather in a light coat to blend the new color with the old color to get an even color match all over. Once you have your desired color and appearance, allow to dry for at least several hours ever 24 hours if you can. Then use the Tannery leather conditioner spray by lightly spraying it over the leather article over the entire newly painted area and allow to sit for a couple of minutes and wipe off with a clean cotton t-shirt or rag. If you cannot find Tannery you can get Leather Balm or any other leather conditioner that may be recommended by the shoe repairmen where you buy the paint. The shoe repairmen will be a GREAT source of information and opinions when doing work yourself if you are not sure what to do.

Pretty much all sewing involving purses, bags and briefcases, I would recommend that you find a shoe repair near you and take it in to have them look at it and have it repaired. Most home sewing machines are not able to sew leather very well if at all and some issues requiring sewing on purses, bags and briefcases may require a patch or maybe even hand sewing with a hook awl needle.

Straps can be shortened if you find that they are to long for you or have new holes punched into them for further adjustment. If you have a strap that broke off from your purse, bag or briefcase, it can be repaired at a shoe repair. Do not get rid of your favorite bag because a strap broke. It usually does not cost very much to repair a strap depending on how it was attached and what needs to be done to re-attach it. Stitching comes undone on straps after months or years of being carried around. Straps can be restitched on machines or be hand stitched if needed. Shoulder purses and bags can have the straps shortened to make them hand bags.

Handles on briefcases can be replaced and repaired!

Zippers are an issue with all types of leather products, especially purses, bags and some briefcases. Zippers can be repaired or replaced and it is cheaper than replacing the leather article in most cases. Most of the time the zipper just needs to be fixed or adjusted. Sometimes a stitch or a clip to stop the slider at a new point will help. New sliders can be replaced and new zippers can be put in. Shoe repair shop do this all the time. You also have other repair companies out there that just work on baggage.

Clasps, "D" rings, "O" rings and other attachments on purses, bags and briefcases can be replaced or repaired as well. Do not think that just because it broke to just throw it away. Take it to a shoe repair and ask the question. Odds are that they can fix it or know someone that can.  Most articles with straps or handles have "D" rings, "O" rings or other types of links to attach them to the bags. When a strap breaks loose from these it can be re-attached either by patching, new leather straps or just sewing back into place. New rings or links can be replaced without a problem as well.

Simple thing is that you should never think that all you can do is donate or throw away your leather article just because it is broken or damaged. If you are attached to or if it is an expensive leather article always take it to a shoe repair shop or a leather repair shop and ask about repairing it and get a price before you just get rid of it.