Kintsugi for handbags

January 8, 2024 4:45 PM

The right eye fell off my favorite handbag. Short of removing the other eye, is there anything I can do to either repair this or make it look nicer?

There’s a good cobbler in my neighborhood. I will not be doing this myself.

posted by pxe2000 to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (7 answers total)

Best answer: See if your person can make a new eye. Find some leather scraps to close match, or get a little crazy and make the repair totally different! I don't think this would be too difficult to do yourself. Do some test pattern pieces to get sizing and shape correct before cutting the good leather/material. You may need to glue or sew to fasten new eye to bag so test those methods before committing to your bag. I think this could be a very interesting project!

If you happen to still have the eye that fell off you could certainly fasten it back on, glue, sew or possibly rivet..Your cobbler will likely have other suggestions too.
posted by LaBellaStella at 5:14 PM on January 8, 2024

image search for pirate eyepatch handbag
posted by amtho at 5:39 PM on January 8, 2024 [1 favorite]

Best answer: If you have the fallen pieces, it looks easy to repair.

If you don't have the fallen pieces, you could make a close eyelid patch and have the owl wink.
posted by amtho at 5:41 PM on January 8, 2024 [4 favorites]

Monocle
posted by Iris Gambol at 6:17 PM on January 8, 2024 [4 favorites]

Best answer: That is a great bag!

I agree, if you have the fallen pieces, should be easy to repair.

If not, doing something new like the wink or monocle idea is fun. Otherwise the shapes look simple enough to match, but I might invert the colors instead of trying to match exactly.
posted by subwaytiles at 6:29 PM on January 8, 2024

How old is the bag? Contact Kate Spade (or simply take it in to a Kate Spade shop) and see if they can help you out. I've done this before with a leather coat that lost a fancy button. Within a week I had a repaired coat (they repaired a rip in the lining while they had it!)
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 7:59 AM on January 9, 2024 [3 favorites]

That looks like a standard tarp grommet to me. If so, and if you have the pieces, this is a two minute fix. Any outdoor sporting goods or decent hardware store should have the repair kits if your cobbler doesn't.
posted by Mitheral at 4:19 PM on January 9, 2024 [1 favorite]