Your mom was a Mrs. Shaft? 
She’s one baaad mother…
SHUT YO MOUTH!
But I’m talkin’ 'bout Mrs. Shaft!
OK, I got the links to work. That coat looks more like bonded leather to me than actual, full thickness leather. Either way - no, not repairable. I mean, you could close up some of those rips if you wanted to spend the time and had the patience… but more would just open up at another stress point.
Broomstick, you used to work professionally with leather. What is the best way to recycle this coat? Or should i cut off the collar and toss the rest in the garbage?
Wow, that’s an interesting question/challenge.
The TL/DR answer is: recycling usage is so limited most people would just cut off the collar to use elsewhere and toss the rest in the garbage.
Longer explanation to follow for those interested:
Bonded leather is usually an actual, very thin layer of leather chemically bonded (i.e. “glued”) to a synthetic underlayer. There are a couple of Bad Things that can happen to such a material.
First, if the top layer of leather dries out it can crack. This is not (usually) a full-thickness penetration of the material, the surface layer cracks and the bottom layer remains intact. Such a piece will still function as an article of clothing, at least for awhile (further deterioration is very likely) but will look damaged.
You can get outright cuts through the full thickness. These can be repaired to some extent, although the best results will still look like a deep scratch. I used to do a fair amount of that and if the material is otherwise in good condition such a repair can last a long while.
The final category of problems is really the worst as far as maintaining a useful object. That’s when Something Bad happens chemically to the underlayer, either the synthetic mesh or the glue used to bond everything together. If the layers separate sometimes you can get them to re-adhere with contact cement but the results are often disappointing. More commonly, the mesh is what is messed up, and I think that’s what you’re dealing with here.
Now, don’t go thinking it’s your fault. You have no idea what had been done to the coat in the past. It could even be that the materials used deteriorated with time alone. The washing process you described should not have chemically degraded bonded leather to that extent so really, I think this was a problem just waiting to happen and concur that it could have happened if you had just worn the coat in a heavy rain or something.
But, there’s no going back. There’s no way to reverse whatever happened chemically, and it will most likely continue to degrade further with time.
So… recycling. Back in my working-with-leather days I would not have kept this for use as patching material due to the likelihood of continued deterioration - no good patching with something that is itself falling apart. If the trim is actual sheepskin, or is a different synthetic that is in good condition, I might keep it for use in something else.
Realistically, I would myself use this in the “truck blanket” category. It could serve nicely, at least for awhile, to use as padding when moving furniture, or for padding when packing delicate/fragile items. It would not be terribly effective as a dust cover unless the inner lining remain intact. It is not usable as a tarp to protect against rain/moisture due to the rents and openings. You could use it to protect a floor against heavy objects, such as motorcycle engine parts sitting on a concrete garage floor, or for resting a porcelain toilet bowl on it while conducting major plumbing repairs on the waste disposal system, or other plumbing bits when repairing a kitchen sink drain - especially important if the floor is any kind of delicate tile.
Basically, it’s a rag, but it’s a heavy duty rag unsuitable for use as a cleaning tool. If you have some heavy repair jobs on your plate, or you’re planning to move in the near future it might be worth hanging onto for awhile but otherwise… >sigh< yes, it’s trash.
Thanks Broomstick !
I threw my bomber jacket in the washer and then the dryer. came out just fine.
It depends on how it was made and what it’s made of.