Vintage clothing is a lot of fun and each piece has it's own history. Unfortunately, some things I find are beautiful pieces but, can be in need of a little TLC.
Because of this, I decided to start doing some blog posts of the restoration process I go through for some of the items before they go up in the site, with tips and tricks that may be helpful for even non-vintage items. Leather is a good place to start. I found this purse at an antique sale where it was buried in a box of other items. It had 6 inches of dust and dirt on it and the leather was looking dull and worn. But it still had beautiful hand done stitching and a floral embossed pattern that I loved.
I remembered an auctioneer I was talking to awhile back had told me how she cleans leather before it goes up for auction and I figured this was the perfect opportunity to see how it worked.
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I was told to clean leather and certain jewelry you will need gojo... which if you are not a car person (like me) or you don't like getting your hands dirty (like me) and or think gojo is a stupid name (also me).... then you find this in any store that has a car section. Ya know, the isle with engine oil and fluffy seat covers. It's used for getting grease off of your hands. Which, I guess if you think about it, leather is skin. So cleaning it with something that cleans skin in a safe way makes sense.
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So, find yourself some gojo ( it can be in a bottle or jar container),a rag, and some leather that needs cleaning. Also, do this in a ventilated area, the cherry one smells like you're drowning in a bag of skittles, and, well, you don't want to have to explain how passing out like that felt.
Next place a dollop of gojo on the rag, like in the picture to the left.
Wipe it all over the area that needs to be cleaned. In this case it was pretty much the whole purse.
When you're done the purse should look way darker than when you started. This is because the leather has absorbed the gojo and needs to dry.
If you're impatient and live in Florida like I do. Go ahead and put the leather piece out in the sun to dry.
After it has dried you should notice a big difference in the colour of the leather. The gojo should have taken all the dirt and grime off of what you cleaned and you should be left with an item that's a way nicer colour and smells like skittles.
This purse will be up on the site soon! Shop more vinatge items like this at www.klassicvintage.com
