What to do with pleather bjd clothes...

I've just accepted the fact that anything pleather is going to fall apart, and I toss it in the trash. I hate when this happens, so I've mostly sworn off buying anything pleather but sometimes a doll just has to have something with a leather look...I just enjoy it for the time I have with it. I wish there were a better option.

 

If its shoes/boots, you can salvage it by rubbing off the flakes and paint them a new color of your choice or use modge podge and glitter that shit out. As for clothes, sell it for cheap- people like me would reuse part of the clothes such as belt, buckles, or even reverse engineer the outfit to make patterns for clothes. Don't toss in the trash- at least reuse it or let someone else salvage it and get some of your money back on selling it.

 

I have restored that pleather finish by scraping off all of the peeling flakes and repainting it with metallic acrylic paint.

 

I'm with @CloakedSchemer I trash them. It sucks, but there's not an easy way to fix them. It's sadly inevitable that they are going to tear up and flake. I would love to fix them, but I personally don't know how to and the effort seems greater than their worth has been.

 

For clothes that are just starting to flake, I've painted them with waterproof fabric glue. The pieces I did this to have survived a couple of years now with no issues, although I don't move them around much.

 

It's frustrating but I just trash them. There are special paints on the graphic arts stores that you can use on fabric, metal, plastic. Each range it's specific for a concrete surface. If you like a lot a piece of pleather you could try with these paints. Maybe you could extend its life a little longer. I've tried in the past on normal fabric and it works to change the color. You have to iron if you want a special finished effect like suede, but you could avoid this step as the heat is not good for the pleather. Here in Madrid I find the brand Pébéo "Setacolor". It would be an option.

 

I had a skirt doing this. I peeled all the flakes off and underneath it's quite soft with a sort of suede finish so I decided to keep it like that. But I think that's one of the only real options.

 

Peel the flakes of and see what’s underneath. Sometimes you get a nice suede like look like @purple_monkfish mentioned.
If you don’t like the look you can use fabric paint to give it a new shiny layer and make it look more like leather again.
And there’s always the option of selling the items to someone who wants to try salvaging it (make sure to make it very clear that the item is damaged though). Or you can simply give it away/ask only compensation for the shipping cost. There are plenty of people on here who like project pieces like that

 

I really do not like pleather very much. Problem is, I have some items which are really relevant to some of my dolls' characters. So when the time of perishing comes, I will have a problem. For this reason, the infamous motorcycle leather outfit from Iplehouse is very randomly allowed to come out, because I fear the day when it starts to disintegrate. Then I will carefully take it apart and use the remainders to create the same outfit, but with real leather. It simply was too expensive and looks too good to let go. Same with several boots and shoes.

Personally, all I create is made of real leather. I save every bit and piece from clothing, if there is enough surface (means no pockets or seams in the material). So I mostly recycle stuff.

Well, I know really nothing else but trying to keep pleather away from sunlight and air. I keep mine in sealable boxes. But then I do not need it in the first place...I am sorry to not be of much help.

 

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I've given up buying anything made of the stuff, too... and really mourn some of the outfits I already have that are, inevitably, starting to fall to pieces. My Lati Aida and Adel's outfits... The ancient and ridiculously pricey Luts armored outfits.... My favorite pair of boots... GAH! More than the money wasted on them, it's the idea of losing irreplaceable pieces that *I really like* that bothers me.

 

I've also tried repairing the outfits with acrylic paint, I also airbrushed some pieces. But it didn't last. I lost some of my dolls' signature outfits My way of coping with desintegrating clothes is to take at least some good photos of my characters wearing them.
I won't buy pleather stuff anymore, but it's quite impossible finding shoes made from other materials (other than fabric).

 

Natural leather is dense, even when it's thin - you need specialized sewing equipment to work with it. If you plan on doing it for mass production - specialized sewing machine, and it is not the cheapest stuff. Vinyl covered fabric is not as dense and can be sewn with regular run of the mill sewing machines, so I'm not surprised that companies do not want to invest extra in to equipment for an occasional piece of leather...
My best advice would be carefully taking the outfit apart and drawing patterns for it (there are a few tutorials on how to do doll patterns from existing clothing on youtube) and than using thous to replicate the item in real leather - hand sewing it will take longer than machine but if you are just making one item for yourself it may be worth the effort

 

I had this happen with a pleather coat for one of my dolls. I brushed all the peeling stuff off, until all that was left was the cloth backing. I actually like it better now just as it is, but I have thought about painting it with liquid latex. It would give it a similar shiny leather look.

 

That would basically mean recoating the cloth backing. Interesting thought...is it possible to colour latex milk?

Another reason why real leather is rarely used might be because you basically always have to use lining with. Pure leather is not that easy to pull over resin. The skin-like structure of resin somehow stops the leather and you have to pull a bit more. You do not need to do that with pleather, as its basically plastic.

But the pleather jackets and pants I own are all lined. So I might just reuse that lining when the time comes...