The Coolest Purse (Repair) Ever

 Hello Readers. I went to a clothes swap and found this wild and wonderful bag. It was a Betsey Johnson purse. Betsey Johnson is famously wild and wonderful as well. This bag was a little beat up. Could I repair it and clean it up? I wanted to try. 

Am I repair expert? No. 

She is cute but she has been through some things. 

The black parts of the bag are literally falling apart. The vinyl is peeling off the bag and it looks bad. 

The piping is in the same condition. The bag is sturdy and the seams are strong but the outer layer of the bag is looking rough. 

I don't have any specialty tools. I thought I could peel the vinyl off with tweezers. 

The tweezers worked really well. I picked and peeled all the loose vinyl off. It took a little while but it was not difficult. 

I also used my little sewing scissors to trim the loose edges 

These were great for the piping around the bag. 

The little bits of vinyl started to pile up. 

I used some glossy black acrylic paint. This was thick paint and it was great for this project. Watery and runny paint would be too messy. 

 

The areas that I peeled off revealed a gray-ish color. I started painting with the black paint and tried to cover the gray color. I wanted the black to look like it did before I peeled it all off.

I painted everything that I had peeled off. 

After 1 coat of the paint it looked like this. I touched up a few spots to make sure it was as dark and glossy as possible. 

I thought it looked good when it was all finished. But I wasn't quite done. This bag came with a short black nylon handle.

I found this bag at a thrift store months ago. I bought it because it was a bargain jut for the strap. 

I thought it went really well with this bag. 

I love these kind of adjustable straps. They just clip on and now this can be a shoulder bag or a cross body bag. 

This was a fun project. I was happy with the way the bag looked when I was done. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.