MkvII problem

[Joeb1]

Hi everyone ,
i managed to get a stain on the front of my indy shoulder bag and quickly used a damp cloth to remove it however what i didnt realise is that being over 60 years old the dye simply falls off these things and i am now left with a large lighter stain on the front flap of the bag . does anyone have any ideas how to correct this besides buying a new bag ?
Joe

[Tennessee Smith]

Don'y worry about it, it's 60 years old. It should have a few stains, its part of the distressing technique.

Indy's sure didn't look mint.

[Ronski]

I had the same problem. It seems you have two options. Soak the entire bag and bring it all to the same shade or leave it alone. I would suggest leaving it alone personally.

[jedidentist]

If the dye is really gone you have 1 of 4 options:
1. Do nothing
2. Get a new bag
3. Attempt to dye the light area to match the rest (virtually impossible I would think)
4. Us the same stain remover and make the entire bag lighter to match.

None of the options are great, but I think that's about all you can do.

[Satipo]

I would try rubbing a little dry dirt on to the lighter section to tone it down a bit. Probably looks a bit raw right now.

[BOINKFFD]

What dose the group suggest for getting the 60 year old funk out? These things stink.

[Indiana Jeff]

When I got my mkVII over 10 years ago it had that same stink (though I guess mine was only a 50 year stink). I threw it in the washer on gentle with mild detergent. There's a lot of folks here that will tell you not to do that because you can bleach the color right out of the bag (per the beginning of this thread). I guess I was lucky, it took the smell out and didn't alter the color at all. How long have you had it? If you let it air out and expose it to a bit of sun that could help with the musty odor.

Jeff

[Joeb1]

im still trying to sort the bag out and i will let you know how i get on , i have noticed that detergent removed the date of 1939 and the broken arrow symbol though which is kind of disapointing . I opted to take the drastic step of trying to get all the bag flap to the same colour as the lighter stain using mild bleach and it came out better than expected as it now looks more "used" than it did before however the flap now doesn't match the rest of the bag so im going to bleach that too . I actually spoke to an elderly woman the other day who used to carry a MKVII during the very early stages of ww2 .