How to Repair a Ripped Suede Jacket
Ruining well-liked clothing can be frustrating, particularly if the item is irreplaceable or expensive. Rather than going out to buy a whole new item, however, even an individual with a small amount of sewing ability can fix clothing at home. Expensive items like suede and leather jackets, in particular, are not impossible to repair. To learn how to repair rips in a suede jacket, follow the instructions in this article.
Things You'll Need
- Sewing equipment and supplies
- Cardboard
- Leather patching kit
- Leather protector
- Hair dryer
Instructions
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1
Turn the suede jacket inside out and find the visible seam stitching in the lining. Most likely, this will be at the hem, but it may also be at the collar. Using a seam ripper, pick out some of the visible stitches, enough so that you have a hole the size of your hand between the suede and the lining. Make sure that you can fit your arm in there and reach the area where the rip is. Turn the jacket right side out again.
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2
Take one of the subpatches out of a leather patching kit, and place it on a small piece of cardboard. Slide the small piece of cardboard between the lining and the suede, just under the rip. Line up the edges of the rip over the patch, then glue the patch to the inside of the rip, using the glue that came with the kit.
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3
Let the glue dry completely. If the glue is not tacky enough to hold the edges of the rip in place, hold the edges yourself and run the hair dryer over the area for a few minutes until the glue becomes stickier. Once the glue has dried, apply leather protector over the rip, obscuring the "line" created by the secured rip edges. If the leather protector is not the same color as your jacket, use a leather touchup in the closest shade possible over this spot.
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4
Pull the cardboard out of the jacket and turn the jacket inside out again. At the lining seam you used the seam ripper on, fold the raw edge back under and pin it securely in place.
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5
Stitch the seam in place, following the original construction of the jacket. You may need to topstitch the seam on a machine, or slipstitch by hand, depending on the location and type of seam you opened.
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Tips & Warnings
If the jacket is torn at a seam line, you will need to take out enough lining stitches so that you can turn the entire garment inside out, then re-stitch the seam.
