Repairing a tear in leather or suede
What changes on leather and suede. Leather has no weave to fray, so the fabric repairs do not apply: a tear is bonded to a backing rather than stitched or darned.
The method for leather and suede
- 1Do not stitch it first. Needle holes are a perforated line and leather tears along perforated lines.
- 2Cut a subpatch of thin leather or a repair fabric about 15mm larger than the tear on every side.
- 3Feed it through the tear so it sits behind the hide, smooth side to the underside.
- 4Bond with a flexible leather adhesive, pressing the tear edges closed and butted rather than overlapped.
- 5Weight it flat while it cures, then recondition the panel.
What ruins it
No superglue and no iron-on patch. Superglue goes hard and cracks at the next flex; heat shrinks and glazes leather.
The general case, and what it costs you
The general method, the detection notes and what this does to a garment's resale value are on the holes and tears page.
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