by bbrah » April 17th, 2008, 1:35 am
First let me say that I am not a professional leather worker or glove restorer. I'm just a hobbyist with an inclination to not leave well-enough alone.
I originally intended to only repair the two sections of ripped seams, but when I started into it, the other seams started falling apart. So I made the executive decision to re-do everything. I carefully cut the original cotton thread with a single edge razor blade to separate all of the pieces of the glove. I had already shot a couple dozen photos of the glove in case I needed reference. Even so, I proceeded carefully when cutting the original thread and paid attention to how everything went together. After I cut the thread, I pulled out the pieces with a small pair of needle-nose pliers.
The padding in the middle three fingers was shot, so I cannibalized another glove. I wanted to reuse the original thumb/palm/pinkie padding, so I decided to remove the glove leather before conditioning.
This is the part where some board members will cringe. After I disassembled everything, I totally soaked the leather in water and scrubbed it inside and out with fast orange hand cleaner with pumice (prior to discovering fast orange on this forum, I would have simply used dishwashing soap and a soft brush to clean the leather). After everything was as clean as I could get it (i.e. the scrubbing foam was white and the water ran clear), I hung the leather up to dry for about four days. Once the leather was thoroughly dry (almost to the point of brittleness), I slathered it with Vaseline and let it dry for a few more days, occasionally applying more Vaseline and bending and working the leather. After about a week, when the leather would absorb no more Vaseline, I wiped off the remains with a paper towel. Before someone fires off a nasty email or post about my reconditioning technique, please know that I've been using this same technique on all of my leather goods for the better part of 40 years and have never had any of them fail me. This includes boots, holsters, sheaths, belts, slings, dog collars, and pack straps. You can get leather wet, but the trick is to let it dry completely before applying any conditioner. Anyway, this is just a description of my process and should not be taken as advice.
Because I didn't care about originality (and also because I couldn't find the appropriate binding material), I purchased a piece of pigskin "lining" from Tandy Leather. I cut it into a 1 1/4" strip that was about 40" long. I coated the suede side with rubber cement and folded over the edges to create a binding that was about 5/8" wide.
I overdyed the binding strip with brown dye to darken it. At this time I also dyed the replacement strap and web loop with the same brown dye. Once these pieces were dry, I used the Vaseline treatment on them.
After all of the original leather was supple with a slight waxy coating on the smooth side, I ran a needle through the stitch holes on the edges to clean them and make them more visible.
I sewed everything together with a hand awl using dark brown three-strand heavy duty polyester awl thread. I sewed the body pieces (fingers and palm pieces) together using a lockstitch. Typically when you sew leather by hand you need to pre-punch the holes for the thread. The binding and strap were new, so I had to punch the holes in them. Because I used most of the original leather for the rest of the glove, the holes were already punched in the appropriate spots.
The hardest part of the whole project was punching the holes in the binding with the same spacing as the parts it attached to. After I punched the holes with my awl, I simply turned everything inside-out, lined up the holes, and sewed it together.
I attached the new binding to the glove with a simple running stitch because I couldn't remember exactly what stitch was originally used (from my photos it looked like a running stitch). Likewise I used a running stitch to attach the liner to the padding. I used a loop stitch to sew the fingers of the new felt padding together leaving the free fingers the same length as the liner.
Overall the sewing wasn't difficult, but it was time consuming. I think I spent at least eight hours sewing on this thing! Like I said, I probably wouldn't have spent the time if I had picked up the glove at a flea market, but since it was a well-intentioned gift from someone whom I care about, I felt obligated to make it work.
Well, that's about it. If anyone has additional questions, you can PM me.
Regards,
-BRAH