The repair work on the Vera Bradley duffel bag with the pocket rip was pretty straight forward. Before washing the bag I did the patching; first I stitched the tear back together to flatten it, and used big stitches to give it flexability. I did this on both sides of the pocket.
I didn't have any fabric that really matched the bag, so I simply picked a floral fabric that I liked out of the scrap bin to sew a patch over the repair stitches on both sides of the pocket. This stops fraying and makes the pocket usable again.
The patch inside the pocket. I had to work in pretty tight conditions, as the pocket isn't really big and I couldn't turn it inside out all the way. It helped to use a very sharp needle and strong thread.
Disclaimer upfront: I don't recommend my washing methods to anyone collecting Vera Bradley bags, as the fabric is not always colorfast and it will make the bag look used.
I want to use these bags, and I want them clean. That's why I washed them in small batches in my washing machine on the delicate cycle and used warm water and regular laundry detergent with a color catcher sheet to catch dye bleeding (the lunchbox ended up being not so colorfast.) It's a good idea to check all the pockets first and remove any debris from them, too. I then hung them up on hangers to dry, and if you do this inside like I did this usually takes a few days.
One final warning: in some Vera Bradley bags they put removable cardboard inserts in the bottom to add support. I found two in mine; one in the stained tote and another in the light green bag. Remove these prior to washing. I'm not a fan of cardboard, so I'm planning to use these as templates for something made of plastic I can use to replace them.
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