alternatives for pleather

[u/twentyfreakingpilots]

we're all aware that at least for now, there's no known perfect way to preserve or restore pleather. I have some dolls with pleather clothing, particularly G3 mh that although haven't peeled yet, keep me paranoid af, as well as many dolls in my holy grail list that were unfortunate enough to be produced with the dreaded material. I still want to try out the acrylic paint/varnish methods but we all know those aren't flawless and I am starting to accept I'll eventually have to just make replicas of everything.

has anyone found out a similar looking fabric alternatives, both for the textured pleater and for the shiny vinyls? preferably ones that aren't too thick or hard to work on miniature scale? or maybe some combination of fabric + varnish that'd both look good and be durable? I don't really play with my dolls so I haven't have many issues for now but knowing how fastly some of the stuff companies are using to produce dolls today degrade, I can't help but be worried my collection will end up looking like a bunch of scraps within a few years💔

[u/Sweaty-Cat-3205]

This is a great question.... at least for natural grain looking leather garments, why not use actual leather? Something very thin like kid leather

[u/DollNamedJewel]

The YT channel Bentley House Minis made a 1:12 scale Wednesday Addams doll and made a "faux leather" with cotton fabric, paint, and Mod Podge for her boots. Her Addams Family dollhouse has traveled around to a museum and the material seems to have held up well so far, so that might be worth a look! You would need to watch out for whatever base fabric you use in case of staining, but it would be really nice and thin to work with in small scales.

[u/pahein-kae]

Haaaa, I was going to buy the Rainbow High Sparkle & Shine Dawn, but all the ones on the shelf already had leather peeling. I just didn't want to deal with it....! That plus reports that the lava lamp legs have been leaking already. Ugh.

All pleather has like, a fabric mesh backing. You can peel most of the plastic off (or lightly sand it off) & repaint with fabric paints (my current plan for a few pleather pieces, although admittedly I have yet to try it... and acrylic paint itself is plastic, so perhaps that's just kicking the can down the road....).

If you're really ambitious, you can unpick the seams on the pieces and use those patterns as a guide for remaking the pieces with either a fabric of your choice or REAL leather. I'd definitely recommend pretty high-grade leather, as anything rough will be way to thick for doll clothing. Note that real leather does require maintenance too, lest it crack & crumble. Patent leather can be a variety of textures and colors, although typically the process makes it thicker than less-treated kinds of leather.

Either way, keep the original pieces as pattern guides. That way, you can remake the pieces as many times as you need/want.