Treating a bad case of mould

Treating mould on leather can be tough if you don't catch it early enough. Unfortunately, one of my own shirts had succumbed to it. It's been a little too small for me the past year, so it's sat in storage and unfortunately damp got in. I tried an initial clean, hoping it hadn't penetrated the surface. However, it quickly came back. This meant the mould spores had got into the flesh of the Leather. This is bad as this is also where it really starts to do the most damage. So it was unfortunately time for a kill or cure treatment. This is bad for the leather, as it's harsh. Treatment I started using a bar of detail antimicrobial soap to clean the visible mould off the surface The next step was to wipe it down with 3% hydrogen peroxide, then soak it in the peroxide in the bathtub. Once it had soaked for a little bit, I rinsed through with plain water. Then came the drying process. Drying out the leather as quickly as possible is important here because damp leather would let any remaining spores re-propagate. I span dry it in my washing machine to ring out as much water as possible then  I stuck it in my electric drying stand to blast it with hot air for a few hours until it was bone dry Restoration Once the leather was dry, it was horribly dried out in all the wrong ways too. I have applied several doses of leather conditioner to help re moisturize it and return its suppleness My conditioner of choice was Mr b leather cream. This is because it has black pigment, which would help replace the back dye that was lost from the peroxide treatment. Please be aware, this product uses almond oil and can provoke a reaction to people with allergies when it's freshly applied. The Results So far, so good. It still needs oil/ wax treatments to restore its suppleness and build up a protective barrier. I won't know for sure if the mould is truly gone for a while. Only time will tell.