Smelly leather jacket!

[user1483390742]

I picked up a lovely Jigsaw leather jacket in my local charity shop for just £10 recently. I haven't worn it yet because it has that musty second hand smell that i just can't get rid of.
I have sprayed it with various smellies and hung it outside on the line for 4 days but no good. Is there any way of getting smelly leather unsmelly?! 😊

Wear it. Wear a strong perfume with it the first few times. My leather jacket went a bit fishy smelling a couple of times after it was left in the wardrobe for a while, I couldn't smell it until I took it out but I sponged it with a damp sponge then aired it outside and just wore it and the smell went straight away, leather sort of takes on your scent if it's worn regularly I find. The more you move about in it the more the leather smell comes through too.

I find that musty, mildewy smell does normally fade with time and lots of fresh air but it can take a while. My husband machine washed a leather jacket that smelt of cigarette smoke and when it came out of the machine, I honestly thought he'd killed it - but it survived and it got rid of the smell too!

Imo the only sure thing is sunshine. We bought a leather chesterfield at auction and when we got it home we found one side was very very smelly, like sweat. It was as though someone stinky sat barechested on the sofa and draped their arm over the one end of the sofa every day. We tried absolutely everything on it and the only thing that worked was to drag it to the garden door on a sunny day and let it bake in the sun.

I've done the same with a musty leather jacket and it's taking a long time but it does work. Make sure you turn it inside-out and upside down in the sun though. You don't want to bleach it.

Fyi the runner-up in the de-stink contest was patchouli oil, which will consume and obliterate any odour. There is an obvious downside to that though. (I like patchouli but lots of people don't.)

Is there a fabric lining? Sprinkle it with bicarb and leave for a bit, then shake off/vacuum and hang up outside to breathe.

Ooh, i haven't tried bicarb. I'll do that at the weekend. Thanks all!

You could also trying putting it in a plastic box, lid on, with an open tub of bicarb for a week - works for stinky fridges and cars as it absorbs the smell.

Who knew? I'll try that too. Desperate to wear it before summer kicks in properly!

I bought a bag off eBay which had a super strong smell of plastic/faux leather, so smelly that the smell would waft everywhere within a 2 meter radius. I researched online for tips to get rid of smell and many US based websites said place the item in a big plastic bag with lots of odour eaters. I'm yet to try it. I've had the bag airing for weeks now and the smell has reduced but it's still there.