Unfortunately I never took a photo of this lilac suede skirt before I decided to start experimenting or only the back of it. It's a rather nice lined Topshop skirt I bought second hand a long time ago. It was in perfect condition and looked after for many years but then I stupidly left two of these skirts in a car travel top ox/ luggage box over winter and with gained these dark marks which I assume to be black mould. I am intending to do something with the second damaged skirt later but more if that works out.
Initially I wanted to kick myself over my own stupidity not taking photos of this at the beginning of this experiment. Its one worth recording but the back of the skirt should do for this.
This is the skirt back when it was untouched:
Then half printed:
I was very upset when these skirts got damaged. I don't really buy leather being a vegan diet wise but I decided long ago it was just hypocritical selling what I already owned from my youth. After all you are still profiting from the meat industry. Yes I could donate but I love them and to replace with synthetic leather is actually conning myself since PVC etc are possibly the worst synthetic products environmentally ever produced so anyway I keep my old leathers. I also look for leather shoes because killing the planet is not on my agenda even though I choose not to eat animals. Its actually a difficult desicion but one I intend to stick with because the planet does matter and vegan leather is environmentally terrible. There's just no other way to put it. And these two skirts ( of which only one is shown here) are ruined so what next to do?
I stuck them in my boiler house for about a year to make sure any mould died and forgot them. Well I know they are there of course but there they just stayed stored until I found stencils for sale on Ebay.
Well how could I resist. It was the perfect time to try using something like that so I paid just under £3.00 for one including postage. Its only small. You can get larger ones for wall stencils but this smaller size is better for my purpose. And interestingly I used this and bent it around the skirt and its still in tact for use again so the slight flexibility is enough not to break it very easily. I actually expected to only use the thing once, Its Mylar. They come in various designs. I just went for leopard spots because they should look on on my fabric.
The stencil started an off white colour and went blue with my paint. Its acrylic so I just let it dry which helps stop me breaking it.
Though I had intended on black paint but had none so used blue instead.
I decided rather than suede dye which is probably too runny I would use acrylic paint. I didn't have many colours to play with and this is after all an experiment so I don't want to waste money until I know it is likely to work. Especially since I have other leather items I would like to update similarly if this looks OK. Not all we're damaged the same way. Some just have stains and cost too much to professionally clean. It's my dirt so I can live with that but I do want them to at least appear good looking. So anyway I went for ultramarine blue acrylic paint and after trying several paint brushes found a bigger house painting brush is the best. It deposits less paint than a smaller artists brushes. The one I ended up using is a 1 inch (2.5cm?).
The sort I like for painting skirting boards and door frames. Its even an old brush but its one I like. I never used water other than to clean the brush at the end so this is essentially dry brushed onto the suede. Its a bit patchy due to some bits having more or rather thicker pain than other bits. Well painting leather with acrylics is not new. Punks. Bikers. Hippies etc have done it since at least the 1950s. But other than a brief teenage thing for bands on the back of my biker jacket back on the 1980s I have not done this.
Acrylic works great too and me being naturally more an oil paint type of girl ( when actually being a painter) I never used these paints and they have just sat there for years. Though I will be on the lookout for another set of acrylics next time I see an offer now. I could probably do a better job with the stencil next time but this skirt will be worn. I kind of like the amateurish arty crafty look it has gained but it's not perfect and with practice I think it could be better. I have a few damaged jackets I will be trying this out on in the next few months. I hate throwing stuff like leather out because its an animal gave its life. It takes about 30 years for some leather to decay in landfill so really its just wrong to chuck it so if you own it I honestly think it should be worn.
This is a bit uneven due to the different brushes I tried and my own lack of skill, but I think it's going to be wearable despite that. And its fun.
In fact I wore it today to the opticians and did not feel uncomfortable in this with a black biker jacket and my boots. Its going to be a good skirt again and I think I actually like it better than before it got damaged so this is a great project. My main issue in fact will be I like this so much I will need to restrain myself so I do not upcycle my entire leather collection - which is reasonably large being an ex-punk ( and a hoarder!!!). Most of it is nice as it is and good basic clothing for cold weather so really I should resist and leave most of it as it is but I know I tend to go overboard when I discover some technique like this.
My "new" skirt is worn here with a nice but basic black top I made a long while ago.
Thanks for popping by my blog, Have a great week won't you and hopefully see you again soon when I may have also upcycled my white leather skirt which I damaged ina similar way. I don't want both skirts the same so have to decide what to do with that one so its completely different to this lilac suede one. If do you try this technique please do let me know how it goes and what you discover because it could help in my future projects too and I do love seeing this kind of thing. People are so inventive and it amazes me what someone else creates with a similar technique. Art can be so exciting.
Take care
Bracken
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