Mending material/advice sought pls

[Scott A. Hess]

I have a 9 button up SS winter anorak, unissued, with rabbit fur interior. There is a small rip to the rabbit skin on the reverse, the hide which almost turns to a paper like feel and is quite delicate. I believe there is a kind of sewing/mending tape that I can put over this area, not stitch, but an adhesive type or activated by heat that I can use to prevent further tearing of the hide, as once this gets going real well, it will rip right down the whole length, I've seen it happen before, Can anyone point me to the right application material? I dont want to just put a piece of "duct tape" there to mend the seam and stop the tearing, but if I cant find the appropirate tailors application, Imay be forced to do this, as I dont want the skin which is seperated five inches to open up any further, any ideas? Im consulting some tailors, but havng heard yet. I know there is available interfacing which can be applied and activited by heat (iron) that is used in suits to stiffen the interior of the material, but I want to see if there is something a bit easier to apply and more hard wearing. thanks in advance. Pls help!

[Scott A. Hess]

Bumping to top to see if anyone has any ideas I have heard there are professional products to patch up these types of rips to animal hide mostly involving some type of synthetic glue and suede to use as a tape to shut the seam/rip, but also curious to see if anyone else has any thoughts or has encountered this problem before. Thanks

[Erich B.]

My suggestion would be to avoid the heat activated tape. The heat will quite possibly do further damage to the fragile skin, and the process is irreversible. If I had to repair it, I would use some unbleached muslin or similar fabric attached to the reverse side with a miniscule amount of archival glue. There are water based glues with no harmful additives that can be removed if necessary in the future. The experts might have a better solution, but I think this method would be innocuous.
Erich

[BryanD]

Avoid any and all heat to old leather. It screws it up very badly.
What you need to do is buy a hide of sciving leather. This is a paper thin sheepskin lining leather for leather projects, The hide is usually around 9 square feet per hide. The cost is per square foot. Get a tube of Labarge leather glue. This material can be purchased from Tandy Leather Corp. I am sure you can google the name and find a net contact. Cut your patch the size you want overlapping at least 1 inch on all sides. Lay it on the leather to be repaired and litely mark the outsides of the patch with lead pencil. Then put a thin layer of glue on patch and area to be covered staying within the marked area, let set till tacky about 10 to 15 minutes. Have the item laying flat. Then start by placing patch on area from one end or the other and gently lay it on in a rolling motion. The glue is rubbery and when it is down you might place a weight like a couple of books on the patch. Put a piece of wax paper between the books and the patch. The materials will cost around $30 to $35.00.
That is as good as you will be able to patch it. No stiches, which are just holes with thread that weakens 65 year old leather.

REMEMBER

sciving leather (sheep skin )
Labarge leather glue.

If you do not use the right materials leave it the f*ck alone. Using any other kind of cheap leather or glue will not work worth a damn.
Hope this helps.
Yes I have worked with leather before.