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How to mend a ripped leather jacket
Leather jackets are expensive, and there is nothing worse than finding you have ripped yours. To make matters worse, it's expensive getting it mended by a specialist.
However, it is now possible for you to mend a rip in a leather jacket using a do-it-yourself home leather mending kit. We explain how to go about it on this page.
The first thing to do is buy a Leather Repair kit.
The one pictured on the right is made by Leather Magic and is available from Amazon.com - see below.
It comes with everything you will need - tools like palette knives, patches, adhesives, cleaning swabs, and also colored repair compounds so that you can mend dyed leather jackets too.
How to mend your torn leather jacket
Once you have purchased your kit, sit down at a clean table and lay out everything you need. Carefully clean the area around the rip using the cleaning swab provided. Because the alcohol in the swab can remove color (if the jacket has not been dyed fast), test it first on an inner piece of the jacket.
After you have cleaned the rip, insert one of the patches in between the leather and it's lining. In other words, the patch needs to sit under the rip. Then use the adhesive to secure the patch to the leather, taking care to close the edges of the tear.
Leave it to dry for a few hours. The rip is now mended, but you will be able to see where the tear is. To conceal this, select a color repair compound that matches your jacket, and carefully spread it over the area using the palette knife provided. (Note that they do provide a color chart to help you mix colors, if your jacket is a non-standard shade).
After each coat, you need to let the jacket dry completely, before applying a new coat. If the tear is just a small one, you may need just one coat - judge by eye to see whether you need to apply more..
Once you are completely happy with the way it looks, and the repair compound had dried, you can apply the leather conditioner included in your kit to finish it off.
The whole process will take several hours, so set aside a clean area to work, where you can leave the jacket to dry in between stages, while you get on with other things.