One of the gifts I gave my sister at Christmas was a small leather bag that I made over. I had bought it in a charity shop as although it was a little stained and scruffy it was great leather. I took it home and I sat on the edge of the bath (to contain the dust you understand) and sanded it and sanded it until the whole thing had a rawer feeling. I then over some weeks painted an intricate pattern of different coloured scales onto it using acrylic paint. Then I sat back and considered it…. it looked good but not great. It was too much, fussy. Boo!
So I went back to the bath and sat on the edge sanding off the pattern I painted on. The cats would come and watch me with a puzzled look. I left some of the marks on the leather in as I think it looks good that way. Then finally when all the paint was off I painted the bottom half of the front flap sage green and left it at that – MUCH better.
The whole thing then got a good polish several times over, buffing it until it was shiny and felt waterproof. My sister seemed to really like it which is the main thing. The lesson I learned was to remember to try to keep things simple!
9 Comments
What a cool project! I see badly treated leather bags in charity shops all the time. It never occurred to me to give them a make over like this.
Damaged bags are usually really cheap too! :)
Never occurred to me to sand back old leather – the new-old bag (especially with the green) looks great.
Thanks! I think it worked well in this case as the leather was so thick :)
wow, the bag looks great!!
your post reminds me of rule number 5 here ;)
http://www.miltonglaser.com/pages/milton/essays/es3.html
Ha, that’s funny :)
So lovely! xx
how cute is that bag!
I’m really in love with your pics, grrrl.
What a lovely, crafty idea! A perfect upcycling Christmas gift! :D