Salvaging a Vintage Gucci Bag

I've been meaning to post this last year, but just got around to finishing up this post! : P Anyway, I scored this vintage Gucci at a Fashion Mamas Flea Market this past Fall. However, it needed a bit of work. If any of you own or have seen a vintage Gucci from the 70s-80s, they're a beauty from the outside, but the interior almost always has some sort of sticky flaking issue, based on the coating they applied to the bags during that time period. Unfortunately, this issue makes for almost an unusable bag, due to the stickiness and flakes that land on nearly everything it touches.

You'll need:

  a stiff bristle brush

a pair of plastic/latex gloves

Simple Green cleaner

a handheld vacuum

newspaper

tons of patience 

Line your workspace with newspaper, trust me you'll want to include this step! Put your gloves on before you begin (I learned this the hard way and it took acetone + tons of soap to remove the black grime off my nails) Start off by brushing the residue left behind from the coating of the interior. Depending on the bag, you may be able to pull the interior out to make it easier to work with. 

Take the hand-held vacuum cleaner (or hose attachment) and suction off the excess flaking left behind as you go along to eliminate the amount of mess you'll need to clean up afterwards.

Once the coating has been removed, there might be a sticky residue left behind. This bag had a ton of stickiness that left black smudges everywhere, so I sprayed Simple Green on the troublesome spots and gently wiped with a wet cloth as I went along. Unfortunately, there is a scent that it leaves behind, but it dissipates over time. I also did something shocking, since I was able to partially pull the interior out-- I gently rinsed the interior under the sink. 

Et voila! Here is the final result. What you should be left with is a soft, felt-like material. It probably took me a good 2-3 hours (after I put the kids down, of course ^^) in total to remove all that gunk left behind, but it was well worth the extra patience in saving this vintage beauty.

If any of you attempted to try this at home, please let me know how it went for you, and if there are any other cleaning products you'd recommend. I'm also curious to know if anyone has ever sent their vintage bag to the professionals (probably the best idea if it is an highly treasured bag), and what the end result was like!
SaveSave