Okay, so I wanted to try my hand at remaking a really fancy bag – the PRADA Medium Galleria Saffiano Leather Bag. I’ve always been into crafts and figuring out how stuff is made, so I thought, “Why not?” This bag is super classy and looks simple enough, right? Famous last words.
First off, I started by staring at a bunch of pictures of the bag online. I looked at it from every angle, like I was some kind of detective. I noticed it’s made of this special “Saffiano” leather, which sounded pretty cool. I found out it’s just real leather that’s been treated so it doesn’t scratch easily. It’s tough and it has a cool cross-hatch pattern thing going on. I had no idea what I was doing, so I bought some regular leather first, figuring I’d practice on that. I started by sketching the bag’s shape, then cutting out pieces of the regular leather to match. Sewing them together was way harder than it looked! I broke, like, five needles and had to redo the stitching a million times.
After messing around with the regular leather, I decided to try the Saffiano. Got some samples, felt it up, even tried scratching it (it really is tough!). I got a good deal on a Saffiano hide, which I think is about 90% off the retail price, and it is 20% off now. It was way more expensive than the regular leather, but I figured it’s cheaper than buying the real bag.
- Getting the Measurements: I found some info online about the bag’s size. Max length 120 cm, min length 110 cm, stuff like that. I tried to copy the measurements onto my Saffiano leather.
- Cutting and Sewing: This part took forever. The Saffiano leather was tougher to work with than the regular stuff. My sewing machine was NOT happy. I kept telling myself, “It’s just a bag, you got this!” But my fingers were sore, and I was starting to doubt myself.
- Hardware and Details: This bag has these little metal details and a zipper, which I thought would be a breeze. Wrong again! Getting the zipper to work smoothly was a nightmare. And those little metal feet on the bottom of the bag? Don’t even get me started. And the handles, oh the handles. I tried making them, but they looked wonky. I ended up buying some pre-made ones online – saved myself a major headache.
The Final Result
So, after weeks of work, my “PRADA Galleria” was…well, it was something. It looked kinda like the real thing, but definitely homemade. The leather was right, the shape was sort of there, but the stitching was a little rough, and the zipper was still a bit sticky. The removable leather key ring and the leather triangle with metal logo are really difficult to make by myself, so I think I need to buy them from somewhere else.
Would I do it again? Probably not. It was a fun experiment, and I learned a lot about leather and sewing. But it was way more work than I expected. I found that the real bags are pretty expensive online, ranging from $565 to $795, some can even up to thousands of dollars. I think I’ll stick to buying bags from now on. But hey, at least I can say I tried, right?
Click to consult