A few Christmases ago my brother gifted me this really cool overnight bag by a hip Brooklyn-based bag company. Unfortunately some of the material started to peel off. It’s a type of faux leather.
Luckily it’s not that difficult to take this fabric off and replace it with new fabric. I’ll walk you through the steps of fixing peeling fabric from a bag. Let’s go!
Here’s what you need to fix peeling, flaking fabric:
- Seam ripper
- Replacement fabric
- Sewing machine
- Measuring tape/ruler
Step 1: Remove the peeling fabric
The first step is to carefully deconstruct the bag wherever the fabric is peeling. Your goal is to get the original fabric panels off of the bag without damaging them too much so you can use them to measure your new pieces of fabric.
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If your bag is lined, find some stitches on the outside of the bag and take your time to carefully cut the stitches, but not the fabric, until you can get a small opening between the fabrics. Â
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If the bag isn’t lined, you can more easily seam rip from the inside of the bag.
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Take your time to carefully seam rip all of the peeling fabric off of the bag. Put on a good podcast or show if you need background entertainment.
 You don’t need to separate the damaged pieces from each other unless it’s too difficult to see how they are assembled without taking them apart.
Step 2: Measure the damaged fabric carefully
Lay the fabric nice and flat and measure & write down all of the sizes that you’ll need to replace. Â
Measure from raw edge to raw edge.Â
If your pieces are curved, you can use the original pieces to trace out a new pattern piece on paper.
Measure and write down the seam allowance too – the distance from the seam line to the edge of the raw fabric. You’ll want to use the same seam allowance with your new fabric.
Take a moment here to make sure you understand how the pieces are sewn together. You want to recreate that with your new pieces. You may want to write it down and sketch it out if you’re worried you’ll forget. You can name each piece (e.g., #1, #2, #3, or Harry, Frank, George, whichever you prefer) and pin a little piece of paper onto the fabric panels so you remember which ones go together.Â
Here’s the little note I made of all the pieces I had to cut.
Step 3: Cut out new pieces of fabric to replace the peeling pieces.Â
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Use your measurements or pattern pieces to trace and cut out new replacement pieces for the old peeling fabric. I personally love using organic cotton and organic canvas for my bags. But use what works best for your project or whatever you have access to. You may want to try and replicate the weight or sturdiness of the original fabric.Â
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Step 4: Sew the new pieces of fabric together and/or back onto your bag.
I cut out 5 new pieces of fabric to replace the bottom of my bag. Then I sewed those 5 pieces together, with the right sides together.Â
Here’s the new bottom panel made from sewing together the new pieces.
Once those panels are done, it’s time to join them onto the original bag. I did this by seam ripping an opening in my lining so I could turn the bag completely wrong side out. This way I had access to the wrong side of the outer layer of fabric.
The blue fabric is my lining fabric where I used my seam ripper to make an opening in the lining fabric.
I used the opening in the lining to turn the bag wrong side out.
Once I had the outer layer wrong side out, I was able to pin the new fabric onto the remaining bag fabric. I pinned them with the right sides together. I tried to match them up at the side seams so that things would align. You might want match them up at the seams or at the center, depending on how your bag lines up with the replacement fabric.Â
In this picture I’m lining the right sides together from the original bag and the new material I cut and sewed together.
And here I’m lining up the seams.
Then I sewed the new fabric and the remaining/original bag fabric together at the machine using the original seam allowance (3/8th inch in my case). Â
Once they were reunited, I turned the bag right side out again through the opening in the lining.Â
If the bag had topstitching originally where you removed the peeling fabric, you can go ahead and recreate that at this step, or decide you don’t want to. I personally skipped the top stitching on my bag. Â
If you decide to do the topstitching, you’ll want to get your outer layer onto your machine without also sewing through the lining fabric. You may have to make the opening in your lining a bit larger.
Step 5: Close up the lining, trim loose threads, and be done!
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Sew up the opening in the lining either by hand with a hidden stitch or at the machine. I decided to do it at the machine since no one will really notice it inside the lining. Â
Trim any loose threads and you’re done!
Good as new, right??
If your bag handles need to be replace, check out my video tutorial (above) for instructions on how to do that too – it’s the same exact process but you can watch along for more details.
I really hope that helps you get your bag back in action!
Got questions? Leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you!
Thanks for reading and for all that you do for the planet!
xo,
Liz