Leather jacket repair in SoCal?

I have a bomber jacket that has two "standard church key" size holes in the elbow area of the right arm. It has a smaller church key hole in the left back panel. It's not a brand name jacket, but it's soft and it fits me. It would be a nice thing to have when riding the bike this winter and on cold autumn nights. I did not pay a lot for it, it needs redyeing too (black). It is an import from Indonesia and the liner is missing, so it aint worth too much. It's your basic straight, no frills, no extra zippers, special pockets, hidden panels (it has two standard "mits" pockets and a standard front zipper in front) or decorations, XXL soft bomber jacket. Its all leather on the outside, made up by sewing lots of smaller quasi-rectangular leather pieces together. The front panels are large one piece panels left and right of the central zipper, with slashed and finished "mit" holes cut into each front panel. The two "church key" holes in the right elbow are in the same lower back quadrant of the leather arm, in line with the shoulder piece that comes down from the neck to the elbow. The back is composed of 4 quadrants of leather. The half church key hole in the back is in the left upper quadrant. The body and arms are finished off with an elastic band incased in leather. The neck has a standard fold over leather collar.

Can anybody out there in the WORLD turn me on to a place that could make an inexpensive repair? The elbow holes might be fixed simply by putting a patch over them. The left arm would need to get an equivilent patch in the same place for balance. The small hole in the back might be 'glued' back to nearly invisible by someone who is clever at leather repair. If it was redyed the back tear might even be invisible. Any one know of a decent low cost leather repair shop say in Orange/LA County or the I.E.? I live in "Riverside" but will commute to find a good result for a low cost.

DKC

 

Nobody repairs their leathers anymore?

Leather used to be an investment you made for decades. It was like a tuxedo, it never went out of style. Now everything is just replaced and the old one heaved onto the rubbish heap we have made our world into? :crazy: Someone, somewhere out there has to have fixed a leather racing suit or a pair of leather pants or jacket ??

 

How I fixed my leather bomber jacket.

I guess I want to thank all you fashion plates :vanity: for nothing . In the end I took my jacket around with me (backpacked it on the bike) to 10 different shoe repair stores in Riverside. I called all the leather repair places in the yellow pages (2) and I was directed by one of these to a particular tailor shop near to the 'Big Mall' and shopping area in Western Riverside. This Phillipino tailor would "patch" the jacket for $35, and he would supply the leather (the remnant hem removed from shortening a woman's leather skirt). :frown: Then I thought of finding my own leather remnant because I had run into resistance at several shoe repair places because they had no leather of the softness and color to make the patches from. I found some leather at a Michaels Crafts store and started dragging that around to the same shoe repair stores and a larger number of tailor shops. I dedicated another day to hitting all these shops and finally found my man in a Vietnamese tailor shop. The guy knew exactly what I wanted before I even opened my mouth to tell him what my compromise position was on repairing the holes in the arm. :tongue:

For $30 he ripped open all the stiching in the arms of the jacket and stuck pieces from a remnant piece of a hem from a woman's leather skirt (yes, another one, jist like the other one) in underneath the original stiching and created one new joint where the lower edge of the "new" patch ended. The whole repair is "seamless" in that it uses three old seams and the one new seam so as to make the jacket appear as if it were made with the patches sewn into the original arms. The remnant leather color (basic black) matched perfectly as well. :rofl: :thumbsup:

I had one woman tailor say it would be such a hard job that she would have to charge me $100 to even look at it, and that was for simple patches like the shoe repair guys were willing to sew on :hump:. Another woman tailor told me that she wanted $40 just to "patch" and it would take weeks. Besides, she didn't want to do it anyway, she was doing ime a favor :faint:. A third male tailor couldn't do it because his sewing machine was not strong enough to sew leather, he sent me back to shoe repair places. The best Shoe repair guy I found had balked when I offered to leave the jacket and the leather remnant I had purchased when he made an issue of not having material to make up a patch. He was the guy who said he would "patch" the elbows for $20. He said I should come back that weekend and he would start the repair on Saturday (and fiinish the following Saturday) after he closed up shop.

But the Vietnamese tailor jumped at the possibility of doing the job. It was raining that day and I had the jacket on. When I realized what he was offereing to do for $30 I immediately took the jacket off and handed him a $20as down payment. It was Tuesday pm and he said it would be ready that Friday . I went out of the shop in a t shirt and he came running after me appologizing for having stripped me of my jacket to ride in the cold and rain (the rain had stopped). He told me that he would fix the jacket that moment if I could wait for 20 minutes :angel:. I was flabbergasted. I'd been getting the run around from all these 'biddies' running tailor shops, as well as shoe repair guys, on what a big deal it was going to be to repair the jacket :scared:. Yet here was this Vietnamese guy telling me that he could knock off the repair in 20 minutes. I told him I could bear the cold (a 2 day rainy spell in Southern California in October) and it's all right if he took his time and did a good job. Needless to say, the jacket is beautiful. :roll:

I went to the Pomona Swapmeet this Sunday past, and they had one of those 'Sew it On While You Watch' embroidery places. I asked if they had retroreflecting thread. The guy didn't but if I get it for him he'll sew me a customised reflector (to be sew on the back of the jacket) for under $20. Customized reflecting leather motorcycle jacket with reinforced elbows for $55 (I gave $5 for the jacket at a swap meet). Not too Shabby. :biggrin:

 

You Can Buy A New One For Less Then $100

 

I can buy a lot of things for @ $100.

I value what I saved from being thrown on the trash heap more than what I would value a cheap leather jacket I had to pay for. It was a fine, well made jacket when I picked it off the rack at the swap meet. Individuality, that and more. Thats what I made that jacket when I saved it, I made it a personal statement about who I am. What's a new second rate "leather"? jacket going to do for me but make me look like a cheap second rate biker. What I have is lined and has the zipper installed to put a second liner in it. Its beautiful, heavy, and well made. I double doubt that the cheap, second rate knock off I could buy for less than $100 would come close to what I found on the cast off pile. But regardless of that, it fits me to a T with room to spare for that second liner should I find a need for it. And I've found a tailor I can place my faith in when I have that second liner made, as well as the next alteration I need to make. And the tailor knew the jacket was worth saving when I walked in wearing the jacket. I looked good in it. And he saw the value in saving a piece of clothing that is well made and looks good on his client. If I had come in in my cheap, less than $100 jacket he would have asked me "why bother, go out and buy another cheap leather jacket to replace the one that tore so easily." By the way, I looked at the jackets on sale for $69 reduced from $89. Add the shipping cost and the chance that it would not fit me if I ordered the wrong size and the fact that I'd have to still add the reflective design across the back of the new cheap jacket, and I figured I was doing Ok.

 

There are some pretty good deals right now.

You were right, you can get a decent jacket for under $100.00. Better Buy now, the dollar is collapsing and gold is over $1000/oz. Better spend those inflating dollars on those made in China, Indonesia and other emerging nations garment industries before the dollar is worth less than water.