softening faux leather, is it possible?

Hi everyone,

just a quick question about working with faux leather, really hoping someone can help me, I'm making a Lady Sif costume using faux leather but the stuff is like cardboard! anyone got any ideas how I can soften it up without ruining it? all the ideas I can find online seem to be based on real leather which I just can't afford at the moment :/

I tried soaking it then scrubbing it dry like one website suggested but its not really made much difference and another site I looked at today suggested that doing that might make it tougher which is just great lol

it's the type of faux leather with webbing on the back I think that's what its called


and this is what ive made so far, I thought the fabric seemed soft enough after I soaked it, but its just hangs weird so I think it could do with being softer


any ideas? any suggestions at all are welcome,
cheers x

It seems that you bought the upholstery variant of faux leather. Since faux leather is made of plastics, and the backing can be synthetics, too, there IMO is no way to soften it. There is a softer clothing variant available, most if not all fabrics stores carry that stuff.

hhmm okay I didn't realize that's what I'd bought, thanks for your quick response!

a few people have suggested wearing it in might soften it up a bit so it can't hurt to give that a go I guess, but yeah you might be right I may just have to look into different fabrics :/ oh well live and learn eh!