Thursday, 19 October 2017

Bag Bonanza

Well it's bee quite a while since I bought any bags so in true to me fashion I have gone on a bag buying bender.

First up I bought this little pink, yes yes you read that right I said pink, evening bag only because of the super cute doggy press stud. Now this first picture is the one on the Ebay listing
The description said It is in shabby vintage condition. Grubby on the inside and out and bits of wear to the material judging by the picture above it didn't look too bad so for £3 plus postage I took a punt.

When it arrived it was smaller than anticipated and a damn sight dirtier than the picture above would suggest.
Words cannot describe the smell when I unpacked it either, just be grateful this post doesn't have an smellovision or I would have made you all suffer!

My first instinct was to cut off the little dog and bin it, but on closer examination (with breath held) it was so well made and quirky I figured I would take a punt on cleaning it. Worse thing that could happen was it would fall to bits or just not clean and then I'd cut the dog off and bin it anyway. As it stands the crepe like fabric is so fragile did just fray apart in a couple of places despite me being as careful as possible, and as it is it currently drying it's hard to say how clean it is, but at least the smell seems to be gone! I'll see how it dries and I may still just salvage the clasp. 

Next up I snagged an unusual shaped Corde bag to add to the collection at a bargainous £7.99
 I then took a punt on a collection of bags listed on Ebay starting at a penny. Again the description wasn't positive and said many were well used and all had been in storage. I liked the look of the green one and thought the blue and cream one was cute too so did a maximum bid of £2.48 which is what I got them for.
The top burgundy one was as mouldy as it looks in this picture and went straight in the bin! 
Of the rest, I am keeping these

The others have been cleaned and will go in the next charity bag. The box they came in seemed to have this weird brown powder in the bottom which was all over the bags and was particularly bad on the green bag, which is real leather by the way.
I made silly jokes about ricin or anthrax which clearly stuck in my mind because I dreamt about someone finding asbestos last night! (which is not as random as it seems because my last workplace was riddled with it and they often had to get people in to remove it when some more was discovered.)
Anyway I came to the conclusion the weird dust was coming from the green bag. Indeed it was, to the point I ended up having to rip out the lining to find there was literally a cup full of the stuff underneath!?!

I carefully tipped it out and thoroughly vacuumed the bag inside. I have come to the conclusion it must have had a very thin layer of foam between the leather and the lining which had disintergrated over time as I have seen a similar result from old foam crumbling. Of course this means I will have to try and make a new lining of some kind for it lord only knows how.... 

Finally the handle of the blue and cream bag had pretty much come apart so after cleaning it I glued it back together and strengthened it by supergluing a piece of stiff plastic to each side. Meaning it will live to fight another day.
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8 comments:

  1. Vix19 October 2017 at 10:49

    That dust is quite common in vintage coats, too - I think it's when the lining has perished.
    The little dog on your bag is very cute, the navy & white one and the green one are lovely. Hope you manage to salvage them. xxx

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  2. Becky 19 October 2017 at 14:48

    Good job cleaning those up!!!! Def worth the price after you put in the elbow grease :)

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  3. Goody19 October 2017 at 17:57

    Oh, I know that brown dust from vintage shoes. Always fun to find your foot coated in powdery decomposing 20th Century god-knows-what at the end of the day.

    The blue and white bag is really nice-great you could fix it. Can't go wrong with corde either.

    For what it is worth-I've had good luck getting rid of mildew odour with bicarb dusted through an item and then being left in the sun to air out. Won't always work of course, but worth a try.

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  4. The Vintage Knitter20 October 2017 at 02:36

    That Corde bag is definitely a keeper!

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  5. Polyester Princess20 October 2017 at 06:23

    What a shame about the "doggie" bag, I'll be waiting to hear how it looks when it's dry. The Corde bag is gorgeous though, and the blue and white back. It's a pity you had to remove the lining from that fabulous green bag! The powder thing sounds familiar: it might be some glue that has disintegrated, but a cup full sounds like quite a lot. I hope you can fix something. £2.48 is quite a good price for that lot! xxx

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  6. Vronni's Style Meanderings20 October 2017 at 09:50

    The bag with the doggie clasp is so cute- I do hope it comes out ok for you.

    I love the green bag from the other collection, too and the Corde bag is fabulous.

    It's wonderful you try to restore them and clearly have had some successes. I'm just too damn lazy!

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  7. Porcelina23 October 2017 at 00:04

    Yup, disintegrated foam has happened to me too! Once in a bag, and once in a hat. An absolute pain to clear up, and then the hat shrank from washing so I had to redonate it after all that hard work. Good luck with the dog-clasp bag restoration!! X

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  8. Mim23 October 2017 at 05:50

    I've never heard of the disintegrated foam, that's really interesting.

    You should do a series of posts on how to repair bags (I always kill the handles on mine).

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