I just wanted to recommend some Heat N Bond for your backing. I have used it to repair my leather chair and my fabric couch. They are both green. When I made my repairs I found repairing the leather was easier than repairing my fabric couch as I had 2 ‘L’ shaped tears. I have 4 dogs and they are from their toe nails. My furniture is all second hand for the love of my fur babies. In my area there is always a piece of furniture on the side of the road. I have learned a lot by taking pieces apart and redoing them.
Hi Tina, cheers I'll keep that in mind. Glad to hear that you're using and repairing unloved old furniture, it's very ecologically sound, aside from the fact that it saves lots of money too.
Cheers David, it was a cheap repair and it worked well. A few people have got a little upset because it wasn't a professional repair, but I think they're missing the point, the Sofa cost something like £25 (or it might have been £30) from a charity shop and sending it to a pro for repair would have been pointless. It's still holding together well after 2 and a half years of daily use, so the owner of said sofa is perfectly happy with it. Cheers for the comment.
Excellent, well done Hellish Meat Noodles, glad it worked ok. It may not be the best product for all repairs, but for an affordable DIY fix it isn't too bad at all.
I think the trick is to open the door and push the sofa through the frame, rather than pushing it through the door... (Sorry, couldn't resist) Good repair, thanks for showing us how.
Ah, that's where it all went wrong then!!!!!! Kind of a shame that it got torn, but it looks fine with the repair done, and it's still a really nice leather sofa (or technically a half leather sofa because the cushions are fabric) for less than the cost of a tank of fuel - substantially less these days...... Cheers for watching Ben.
Great Job, Tim. I enjoy a bit of leather crafting so I found this really interesting as I would have had no idea where to start on something like this (My leather crafting is somewhat restricted to wallets and Doll's shoes). Great Video, Mate.
Cheers David, it's very much a DIY repair - I quite fancy doing some slightly higher quality leather repairs, but unless I go searching for stuff to repair, I wouldn't have anything to fix. There's a really good demo of someone doing a proper job on a sofa here, if you've got time to watch th-cam.com/video/v1FLfKzBsmc/w-d-xo.html - I'd quite like to do stuff like that - the equipment isn't too expensive, but you need quite a few items and it soon adds up.
@@GrumpyTim Yeah to get into basic leather crafting is fairly inexpensive, but once you start investing in higher quality tools it soon stings a bit lol
I guess I'll carry on bumbling along for now, but it might be fun to do a bit more - I did trim a car, all by hand (apart from the seats which I paid someone else to do), many years ago, that was quite satisfying.
Hi ohjajohh, the initial gluing was tricky because the padding kept trying to open the joint - I might have been better off loosely stitching the thing back together first - but once it was stuck together, filling the cracks is pretty easy. Definitely worth doing and the sofa now looks fine.
Thanks Rochelle, it's not a perfect job, but it's so much better than that huge tear in the arm, which would only have just got bigger if it was left unattended. The sofa in the video only cost £30 from a charity shop, so an expensive repair wouldn't have been particularly viable, however, just for a bit of extra viewing, here's a video by A.R.T.'s Real Repairs, where he uses a more professional method (if trying this as a DIY job it would cost considerably more because there's some special equipment and materials needed), but the results are pretty impressive. th-cam.com/video/v1FLfKzBsmc/w-d-xo.html
You're welcome - it's always worth exploring different options before tackling your own repair. If you do take on repairing your dog chewing rip, it would be worth getting hold of some random scrap leather first and just doing a few test repairs on that so you get the feel for it before you try the real thing.
I got it all over my hands but that was about it - it would probably be pretty bad if you got it on fabric or the carpet, I don't think it would come out in a hurry. I forgot to clean the filler off my hands when I went shopping later in the day - people probably thought I'd got some weird skin disorder or something!!!
Hi tttt, I did mention in the video at 07:02 that a stitched repair might have been a better solution, but there again, the best repair would have been a stitched repair followed by the application of a heat applied filler, followed by leather colouring dyes - for this you'd also need the iron to heat the filler (this also flattens down the stitches so they become more or less invisible) and a selection of dyes - all are available from professional leather repair suppliers but not necessarily the first thing your average person will look for because it isn't such a cheap solution. I wanted to use the cheap product on a slightly trickier repair to show that it can be done, but it isn't necessarily as easy as most of the marketing videos will have you think - without exception, all the videos I've seen showing these products select a nice easy cut, right in the middle of a lovely flat cushion, with no curves and no seams in the vicinity. Not least of all, that sofa cost my friend £30, so an expensive repair wasn't really justified. If I had another suitable candidate it would be interesting to try the stitched repair using these acrylic fillers to see how well you can disguise the stitches. Even better would be to do all three methods - acrylic filler with backing material, acrylic filler over stitching and finally heat applied filler with leather dyes etc - I know which would be the best, it would be the final method, but I wonder which of the other two would look the best.
I watched your video, an ordered a repair kit. Did 1 of three repairs on my chair. However, the glue paint is not the same color as the chair it is so off. Can using a wax or leather cleaner help to tone down the difference? Its on the foot rest.
Hi Kathy, I don't think the regular polishes or waxes will make much difference to the colour of the glue/paint, there are proper leather recolouring products for professional use but you'd need to track those down and they probably wouldn't be particularly cheap. Assuming you used a similar kit to mine, where you mix the colours yourself, you could mix up small batches of a slightly darker or lighter mix (depending on whether your existing repair is too dark or too light), and just speckle in tiny blobs of that new colour with something like the point of a cocktail stick - the idea wouldn't be to get total coverage of the new colour because real leather is rarely a consistent colour, you'd just want to do tiny little speckles until the colour blended better. This will be a trial and error process, so try a sample where it won't show before charging into the main repair.
Hi John, I think you may have missed some of the point to this video, the sofa in question had cost the owner £30 (or was it £25) from a charity shop, so a professional repair was out of the question. I think I said on more than one occasion during the video that a stitched repair using proper repair materials would have been a better approach. One of the main reasons I uploaded the video was to show that although you can repair items using the cheap filler glues, it's nowhere near as easy as any promotional videos will have you believe, where they usually have a very neatly cut triangle on a perfectly flat seat, with no curves or seams to worry about. The strength of the repair comes entirely from the backing material, so although it would have been nice if I could have got the joins tighter, either by using thread to stitch the join or if I could have removed the wadding, the end result looks far better in the flesh than it does on camera (I think I mentioned that in the video but I can't totally remember). But on your final point "it will come straight back apart", after 747 days (since the video was uploaded) of being sat on every day (the owner hasn't been on holiday so no days off), the repair looks exactly the same as it did when it was first done, there is no cracking on any of the joints - I sat on it last night and examined everything closely, so this is pretty up to date information. All that said, a proper leather repair using thread and filler applied using a hot iron and finally re-colouring the repair would have been far more satisfying, it just wasn't the solution for this particular job.
Oh man, what a crappy repair. I'm an amateur but my repairs are way better than yours. Sorry, but I'm just being honest. You needed to pull the gaps tight and not leave gaps.
Hi DumbSkippy, I'm well aware that the repair could have gone better, part of the reason for filming the repair was to point out that using these leather repair kits isn't quite as clean and easy as their promotional videos will make you believe - I think, without exception, all the manufacturers advertising videos I've seen select a nice simple tear (in fact I've seen several that look like a very clean knife cut, as if they've got a perfectly good cushion and cut it carefully before then "fixing" it - all very fake) right in the middle of a flat cushion and never tackle a repair on a tricky curve where the padding is trying to push the repair apart all the time. Adding to that, working round the camera and the legs of the tripod always hampers whatever I'm working on - less of a problem on some jobs, but where the adhesive is setting rapidly, it was a real pain on this shoot. Undoubtedly, as I mentioned during the video, the best repair would have been a stitched repair, preferably using a heat applied filler and heating iron, then colour the repair with a dye - but again, I wanted to show what it would be like doing this job using one of the cheap repair kits. If you're good at doing similar repairs on tricky curved surfaces, with the padding constantly trying to undo your work, then there's an opportunity for you to make your own videos on the subject - there are likely to be plenty of people searching for advice on the subject.
@@DumbSkippy Hey, no worries DumbSkippy, but seriously, if you did ever get round to filming one of your own leather repairs I'd be interested to see it, so let me know if you do.
I just wanted to recommend some Heat N Bond for your backing. I have used it to repair my leather chair and my fabric couch. They are both green.
When I made my repairs I found repairing the leather was easier than repairing my fabric couch as I had 2 ‘L’ shaped tears. I have 4 dogs and they are from their toe nails. My furniture is all second hand for the love of my fur babies. In my area there is always a piece of furniture on the side of the road. I have learned a lot by taking pieces apart and redoing them.
Hi Tina, cheers I'll keep that in mind. Glad to hear that you're using and repairing unloved old furniture, it's very ecologically sound, aside from the fact that it saves lots of money too.
Nice video. I really like the way you showed the actual products you were going to use in the video. The repair ended up looking quite good actually.
Cheers David, it was a cheap repair and it worked well. A few people have got a little upset because it wasn't a professional repair, but I think they're missing the point, the Sofa cost something like £25 (or it might have been £30) from a charity shop and sending it to a pro for repair would have been pointless. It's still holding together well after 2 and a half years of daily use, so the owner of said sofa is perfectly happy with it. Cheers for the comment.
I bought this kit and also have had very good results with a pretty big repair. Thanks for the video, it was a big help.
Excellent, well done Hellish Meat Noodles, glad it worked ok. It may not be the best product for all repairs, but for an affordable DIY fix it isn't too bad at all.
I think the trick is to open the door and push the sofa through the frame, rather than pushing it through the door... (Sorry, couldn't resist)
Good repair, thanks for showing us how.
Ah, that's where it all went wrong then!!!!!! Kind of a shame that it got torn, but it looks fine with the repair done, and it's still a really nice leather sofa (or technically a half leather sofa because the cushions are fabric) for less than the cost of a tank of fuel - substantially less these days......
Cheers for watching Ben.
@@GrumpyTim definitely worth doing!
Great Job, Tim. I enjoy a bit of leather crafting so I found this really interesting as I would have had no idea where to start on something like this (My leather crafting is somewhat restricted to wallets and Doll's shoes). Great Video, Mate.
Cheers David, it's very much a DIY repair - I quite fancy doing some slightly higher quality leather repairs, but unless I go searching for stuff to repair, I wouldn't have anything to fix. There's a really good demo of someone doing a proper job on a sofa here, if you've got time to watch th-cam.com/video/v1FLfKzBsmc/w-d-xo.html - I'd quite like to do stuff like that - the equipment isn't too expensive, but you need quite a few items and it soon adds up.
@@GrumpyTim Yeah to get into basic leather crafting is fairly inexpensive, but once you start investing in higher quality tools it soon stings a bit lol
I guess I'll carry on bumbling along for now, but it might be fun to do a bit more - I did trim a car, all by hand (apart from the seats which I paid someone else to do), many years ago, that was quite satisfying.
Terrific job! You made it look so easy (but I bet it isn't)
Hi ohjajohh, the initial gluing was tricky because the padding kept trying to open the joint - I might have been better off loosely stitching the thing back together first - but once it was stuck together, filling the cracks is pretty easy. Definitely worth doing and the sofa now looks fine.
Great job
Thanks Rochelle, it's not a perfect job, but it's so much better than that huge tear in the arm, which would only have just got bigger if it was left unattended. The sofa in the video only cost £30 from a charity shop, so an expensive repair wouldn't have been particularly viable, however, just for a bit of extra viewing, here's a video by A.R.T.'s Real Repairs, where he uses a more professional method (if trying this as a DIY job it would cost considerably more because there's some special equipment and materials needed), but the results are pretty impressive. th-cam.com/video/v1FLfKzBsmc/w-d-xo.html
Thank you for taking the time to reply to my comment. I appreciate the advice and will definitely look into that for my large jaggered dog rip.
You're welcome - it's always worth exploring different options before tackling your own repair. If you do take on repairing your dog chewing rip, it would be worth getting hold of some random scrap leather first and just doing a few test repairs on that so you get the feel for it before you try the real thing.
WOW !!!! have you ever thought of working on the next Frankenstein movie..
Very tidy repair! I bet that filler tends to get everywhere.
I got it all over my hands but that was about it - it would probably be pretty bad if you got it on fabric or the carpet, I don't think it would come out in a hurry. I forgot to clean the filler off my hands when I went shopping later in the day - people probably thought I'd got some weird skin disorder or something!!!
No need to use a piece of material under the leather. Stitch the leather flap together, apply filler, recolour.
Hi tttt, I did mention in the video at 07:02 that a stitched repair might have been a better solution, but there again, the best repair would have been a stitched repair followed by the application of a heat applied filler, followed by leather colouring dyes - for this you'd also need the iron to heat the filler (this also flattens down the stitches so they become more or less invisible) and a selection of dyes - all are available from professional leather repair suppliers but not necessarily the first thing your average person will look for because it isn't such a cheap solution. I wanted to use the cheap product on a slightly trickier repair to show that it can be done, but it isn't necessarily as easy as most of the marketing videos will have you think - without exception, all the videos I've seen showing these products select a nice easy cut, right in the middle of a lovely flat cushion, with no curves and no seams in the vicinity. Not least of all, that sofa cost my friend £30, so an expensive repair wasn't really justified.
If I had another suitable candidate it would be interesting to try the stitched repair using these acrylic fillers to see how well you can disguise the stitches. Even better would be to do all three methods - acrylic filler with backing material, acrylic filler over stitching and finally heat applied filler with leather dyes etc - I know which would be the best, it would be the final method, but I wonder which of the other two would look the best.
I watched your video, an ordered a repair kit. Did 1 of three repairs on my chair. However, the glue paint is not the same color as the chair it is so off. Can using a wax or leather cleaner help to tone down the difference? Its on the foot rest.
Hi Kathy, I don't think the regular polishes or waxes will make much difference to the colour of the glue/paint, there are proper leather recolouring products for professional use but you'd need to track those down and they probably wouldn't be particularly cheap. Assuming you used a similar kit to mine, where you mix the colours yourself, you could mix up small batches of a slightly darker or lighter mix (depending on whether your existing repair is too dark or too light), and just speckle in tiny blobs of that new colour with something like the point of a cocktail stick - the idea wouldn't be to get total coverage of the new colour because real leather is rarely a consistent colour, you'd just want to do tiny little speckles until the colour blended better. This will be a trial and error process, so try a sample where it won't show before charging into the main repair.
Such a disappointment, I had hoped to watch a professional 😂
This is an awful repair finished awful joints left gaping it will come straight back apart
Hi John, I think you may have missed some of the point to this video, the sofa in question had cost the owner £30 (or was it £25) from a charity shop, so a professional repair was out of the question. I think I said on more than one occasion during the video that a stitched repair using proper repair materials would have been a better approach. One of the main reasons I uploaded the video was to show that although you can repair items using the cheap filler glues, it's nowhere near as easy as any promotional videos will have you believe, where they usually have a very neatly cut triangle on a perfectly flat seat, with no curves or seams to worry about. The strength of the repair comes entirely from the backing material, so although it would have been nice if I could have got the joins tighter, either by using thread to stitch the join or if I could have removed the wadding, the end result looks far better in the flesh than it does on camera (I think I mentioned that in the video but I can't totally remember). But on your final point "it will come straight back apart", after 747 days (since the video was uploaded) of being sat on every day (the owner hasn't been on holiday so no days off), the repair looks exactly the same as it did when it was first done, there is no cracking on any of the joints - I sat on it last night and examined everything closely, so this is pretty up to date information.
All that said, a proper leather repair using thread and filler applied using a hot iron and finally re-colouring the repair would have been far more satisfying, it just wasn't the solution for this particular job.
Great video
Oh man, what a crappy repair. I'm an amateur but my repairs are way better than yours. Sorry, but I'm just being honest. You needed to pull the gaps tight and not leave gaps.
Hi DumbSkippy, I'm well aware that the repair could have gone better, part of the reason for filming the repair was to point out that using these leather repair kits isn't quite as clean and easy as their promotional videos will make you believe - I think, without exception, all the manufacturers advertising videos I've seen select a nice simple tear (in fact I've seen several that look like a very clean knife cut, as if they've got a perfectly good cushion and cut it carefully before then "fixing" it - all very fake) right in the middle of a flat cushion and never tackle a repair on a tricky curve where the padding is trying to push the repair apart all the time. Adding to that, working round the camera and the legs of the tripod always hampers whatever I'm working on - less of a problem on some jobs, but where the adhesive is setting rapidly, it was a real pain on this shoot. Undoubtedly, as I mentioned during the video, the best repair would have been a stitched repair, preferably using a heat applied filler and heating iron, then colour the repair with a dye - but again, I wanted to show what it would be like doing this job using one of the cheap repair kits. If you're good at doing similar repairs on tricky curved surfaces, with the padding constantly trying to undo your work, then there's an opportunity for you to make your own videos on the subject - there are likely to be plenty of people searching for advice on the subject.
@@GrumpyTim I'm sorry that I insulted you. Sorry mate!
@@DumbSkippy Hey, no worries DumbSkippy, but seriously, if you did ever get round to filming one of your own leather repairs I'd be interested to see it, so let me know if you do.
@@GrumpyTim Thanks mate! I have a tricky one to do soon.
Terrible looking repair, I would be embarrassed to show that on youtube, I don't think the repair shop would do a repair as poor as that.