Leather jacket repair: what can be fixed and what can't

Scuffs and scratches

On sheepskin nappa most scuffs are not damage but displaced surface: rub them with a clean fingertip and the warmth and oil of your skin lift them. For anything that stays, a small amount of leather conditioner on a soft cloth, worked in a circle, then buffed. Deeper scratches that show pale leather underneath on a black or brown jacket take a colour balm or cream in the matching shade, applied thinly and buffed; test inside the hem first. Full-grain cowhide scratches more visibly and recovers the same way, more slowly. What does not come out is a cut through the surface, which is a tear, below.

Stains

• Water spots. Dampen the whole panel evenly with a cloth so it dries without an edge, then condition.
• Oil and grease. Cover the mark with cornflour or talc, leave it overnight to draw the oil out, brush off, repeat. Do not rub it in and do not use soap.
• Ink. Fresh, a cotton bud barely damp with rubbing alcohol, dabbed, not rubbed. Set, a specialist.
• Salt lines from rain. Wipe with a cloth wrung out in water with a splash of white vinegar, then plain water, then condition.
• Mould. Wipe with the same vinegar solution, dry in moving air away from heat, then condition. Store it somewhere drier.

Stiff or dry leather

Leather dries when it loses the oils the tannery put in: heat, sun, radiators, a decade in a wardrobe. Condition it: a thin coat, left for an hour, buffed, repeated a week later if it still feels dry. Never oil it with household oils, which go rancid, and never put it near a heater to speed anything up. A jacket that has gone stiff all over usually comes back in two or three rounds. The care guide has the routine that stops it happening.

Zips

Most "broken" zips are a worn slider, not a broken zip. If the teeth are intact and the slider no longer closes them, a leather tailor or cobbler fits a new slider in minutes. A zip with missing or bent teeth needs replacing, which means unpicking the front seam and sewing in a new one; a specialist does it in a day and the cost is a fraction of a new jacket. A stiff zip wants a little wax rubbed along the teeth, not oil.

Snaps, buckles and hardware

A snap that no longer holds is usually the socket half splayed open; a specialist replaces it with a matching one. A snap that has pulled out of the leather can be reset with a small reinforcing patch behind it. Buckles and belt loops are sewn, so they are a seam repair.

Lining

Lining goes before leather does. A torn pocket bag or a split seam is a seamstress job; a lining worn through at the hem and cuffs can be replaced entirely, which gives a well-loved jacket another decade. A specialist who works with leather will unpick the facing, fit a new lining and close it without touching the outside. The lifespan guide explains why this is worth doing on good leather and not on cheap.

Tears and holes

A clean tear in full-grain leather can be glued and backed from inside by a specialist; the repair is strong and, on a textured hide, nearly invisible. On smooth nappa the line shows if you look for it. A hole needs a patch, visible by nature, which is where embroidery earns its keep: a small stitched piece over the repair turns a flaw into a feature. A tear along a seam is the easiest of all, because it is just a seam.

What cannot be fixed

Peeling or cracking surface. That is not full-grain leather; it is a coating failing on corrected-grain, split or bonded material, and there is nothing underneath to repair. Leather that has been soaked and dried hard without conditioning may not recover its hand. Sun-faded colour can be re-dyed by a specialist, but the result is a uniform finish rather than the original. The leather grades guide explains why the first of these happens.

Repair or replace

Repair if the leather is full-grain and the fault is a lining, a zip, a snap or a single tear. Replace if the surface is cracking, if the leather has gone hard all over and two rounds of conditioning have not softened it, or if the fit was never right, which no repair fixes. A good leather jacket should be repaired two or three times in its life; that is what makes it the cheapest jacket you will own.

Questions

My jacket is new and something is wrong with it. A fault in the making (loose stitching, a failing zip, a tear not caused by wear) is covered by the legal guarantee. Email photos and your order number and we sort it.

Can a jacket be made bigger or smaller? Smaller, yes: sleeves shortened, the body taken in at the side seams. Bigger, only by what the seam allowance gives, a centimetre or two. For a different size, the builder cuts a new pattern to your measurements.

Who do I take it to? A leather repair shop, a cobbler who works with garments, or an alterations tailor who says yes when you ask about leather. Not a dry cleaner.