Instructions to Repair a Leather Jacket

Conditioning your leather every six months can prevent future damage.

Even after years of wear, leather jackets can look good. If you don't want to get rid of a leather jacket just because it has a small hole or a tear, you can repair the damage and extend the life of your jacket.

Things You'll Need

• 600-grit sandpaper
• Canvas material
• Leather cleaning product
• Leather filler product
• Leather glue
• Leather patch material
• Leather repair product
• Lint-free cloth
• Paper
• Pencil

Instructions

1. Choose a leather repair product and leather patch material that give you a good color match to your leather. Many repair product manufacturers will have a chart of the colors they sell, and you can always call the manufacturer for advice. For the patch material, take your jacket in to a fabric store and find the best match you can. It’s important that your repair product and patch blend with your leather.

2. Give your leather a good cleaning with the leather cleaning product of your choice. Most of these products you just spray on, work into the leather with lint-free cloth and then let dry. You need to start with a clean base so that the later steps will stick.

3. Make sure you have access to both sides of the leather for any holes you need to patch. This means that, if your jacket has a liner, you may have to cut it to get at the leather. Find the least conspicuous area to do this and try to cut along a seam in the liner.

4. Lay the jacket out flat on a firm surface so that the hole is over a piece of paper and color in the section of paper that shows through the hole. Make sure your jacket is as flat against the paper as possible. This will be your guide for cutting out the leather patch.

5. Cut out the section of colored-in paper and use it as a guide to cut the leather patch. Aim for a tight fit, but err on the side of “smaller” rather than “larger,” as the leather repair product will fill in small gaps around the patch. Use leather glue to attach the leather patch to a small piece of canvas backing and let it dry.

6. Use leather glue to attach the patch. You want to glue the canvas backing to the jacket so that the patch fits into the hole from the inside to keep the canvas out of sight.

7. Apply leather filler around the edges of the patch, but don’t use so much that it swells out. Let it dry and then gently sand it smooth with 600 grit sandpaper. This will give you a nice, even surface for applying the leather repair product.

8. Apply the leather repair product over the edges of the patch to blend it into the surrounding leather. You can do this with a fingertip, but it may take two or three applications, and you have to let it dry between each one.

Tips & Warnings

• Use a blow dryer to speed the leather repair products drying times, but don’t get it too close to the leather.

• If your jacket doesn’t have a liner, consider using some of the leather patch material as a backing instead of the canvas. It will be less likely to show.

References

• I Love India: How to Repair Leather Furniture
• Leather Help: Leather Repairs
• Auto Media: Leather Interior Cleaning and Care