4 Tips for Leather Jacket Repair

Leather jacket repair doesn't have to be complicated endeavor. You can get a lot of wear out of a leather jacket, but over time, it can crack, dry out, or rip due to general use. There are ways to correctly repair a leather jacket, and then there are mistakes that can be made to make the job much harder than it should be. The information contained in the following article will share with you some tips on how to achieve a great finished repair job.

1. Repair Kit Instructions

There are very few leather repair kits on the market, and none available are specifically for leather jacket repair. You will find some repair kits listing leather jackets as one of the items they can be used on, but in the end, any kit will do the trick. Everything that you need to know about using the leather repair kit is included in the instructions. Read the provided instructions carefully and follow them to the letter.

2. Start with a Clean Surface

No matter how you decide to go about your leather jacket repair, you should always start with a clean surface. Leather has a sort of milky smoothness to it, a light texture that can attract and maintain a thin layer of oil. It also attracts dirt and grime. These elements can all cause a leather repair to be ineffective or to not last very long. In order to get a great finished product, the leather needs to be cleaned. Use a mild soap that is oil-free and mixed with water until sudsy. Rub the soapy water into the leather with a soft-bristled brush. Once you are finished cleaning the leather, you should buff it with a rag.

3. Blending the Color

Leather comes in basic colors, with the most popular being black and brown. It is not as common to find other colors outside of these basic colors - though red, white, and pink leather can be found. Matching color for your distressed leather jacket repair project is, unfortunately, not that easy. Companies that create leather repair kits try to be as generic and general as they can be with the colors provided. You may or may not be able to match a color correctly, but you will come close to the color of your leather. The trick then is to blend the color to the surrounding leather. After the color has been applied, use a small cotton swab to gently push the color around the repaired area. Continue to do this until the color is spread out so that you can barely make out where the newly added color starts or ends. This will make the color job less likely to be noticeable without a close inspection.

4. Straight Edges

If your leather jacket has damage that is jagged, uneven, burnt, then you will need to prepare the damaged area to properly accept a patch repair. If you want a seamless leather jacket repair, then you need to start with a site that is even or straight. Trim the leather of charred bits and jagged edges.