wash your jeans?

navetsea said:

sorry it is just meant as a joke

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I understood that completely, no offense taken. I have yet to post my "load-out" on a public forum, so I'm not quite one of those "tacti-cool" fellows yet.

The pockets on my new white jeans are unusal short, but I think, that's tolerable on naturally "non-versatile" white summer jeans. So, I stick my train tickets in the back pockets, where they are safe. Life's good.

I picked up some shrink to fit Levi 501 last month and just washed them for the first time. I'm getting some nice crease fade.
When I first put them on my wife laughed. "Those are way too big." They were 4" too long and needed double cuffing, the legs were wide and the butt sagged. Now, they are just the right length, no cuffs, and fit just right. They've also lost that new farmer pants look and have started to develop a perfect indigo color. These are still my favorite jeans.

Shrink-to-fit, you're not kidding...4" inches lost off the inseam? Wow. I am glad it worked out.

My experience has been to order them the correct waist size and add several inches to the length. The waist shrinks only slightly and stretches back to the right size within an hour or so of wearing them again. I wish I'd added more length because I prefer a cuff, but there's no extra fabric for it now.
Also: (and of course) wash them separately the first few times, cold water, inside out, low heat dry.

This thread makes me smile, simply as it makes me think back to early this year when I bought my first ever pair of raw denim jeans.
I bought myself a pair of RMC 14oz denim wide cut, high waisted jeans. To be honest 14oz meant absolutely nothing to me, I just liked the cut.
Anyhow they arrived and they're shrink to fit. Opened the package and wondered what the hell I'd bought, in my eyes they were like cardboard, so, decision time....do I wash them and see if they soften or send them back as I was fully aware that one washed they were mine whether I liked them or not.
Picked the washing option, hung them out to dry but when they were almost dry they seemed even stiffer than before and at this stage panic mode wasn't far off as I'd paid a fair amount of money for these things.
Off to google I went and found a page on how to soften raw denim. First bit was to soak them in a white vinegar/water mix overnight. Decided to soak them for about 3hrs (not renowned for my patience) then followed the instructions and stuck them on a cool wash. Next step was a warm, not hot, tumble drier with something like a tennis ball in to bounce around on them. Didn't have a tennis ball so stuck one of my gym trainers into a cotton bag and chucked that in with them. Next step was when almost dry, get them out and roll them up tightly and tie up with string....then hit them with something heavy. So there was me in the kitchen beating the hell out of them on the kitchen worktop thinking that the neighbours may have suspected I was getting rid of the OH, also noticed that everything I'd used, including the tumble drier, was getting a nice blue hue with the dye leakage. My trainer escaped getting dyed blue as it was in a bag that was now also a nice shade of blue, the only issue was that the heat of the drier melted the glue holding the sole on so a new pair of trainers went on the shopping list.
All this probably softened them by approx 30% which in my eyes, although still quite stiff, was much better.
Waited until the OH got in from work and put them on to show how well they now fit me, she agreed they fit well only to leave me up in the bedroom with a passing comment as she went downstairs saying "By the way, you smell like a chip shop" so, in the wash they went....again.
Anyhow, I now love the things and they fit perfectly

My first pair of real raws were some Nudie boot cuts because boot cut was all the rage back then. The denim actually faded quite nicely so after boot cuts went out of style I bought the same denim in a straight cut and they're one of my favorite fitting jeans still to date. After those I started to get more into the Japanese denim scene and pretty much am still there. Though now I pretty much will only buy mid weight one-wash or sanforized to take all guess work out of the process.

My rigid blue 501 STF (501-0000 aka “the jeans”) used for 5 years as beaters:



Hard to believe now these were raw dark blue when new.

Can you safely employ a hot wash to tighten up a pair of sanforized jeans that you’d like just a bit smaller?

Jules Myers said:

Can you safely employ a hot wash to tighten up a pair of sanforized jeans that you’d like just a bit smaller?

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You can always try. I’ve washed a denim jacket in 90 C to try and shrink it. It shrunk a tiny bit. What do you mean “safely”?

Jules Myers said:

Can you safely employ a hot wash to tighten up a pair of sanforized jeans that you’d like just a bit smaller?

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They will come out a little bit tighter, yeah, but will sadly also stretch back to how they originally were after a couple of days.

torfjord said:

You can always try. I’ve washed a denim jacket in 90 C to try and shrink it. It shrunk a tiny bit. What do you mean “safely”?

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Oh by safely, I only meant without danger of pulling out a pair of jeans that now only a child can wear.

Jules Myers said:

Oh by safely, I only meant without danger of pulling out a pair of jeans that now only a child can wear.

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I don’t think that’s an issue in my experience. But as Monitor said, there’s a big risk they will stretch back to their original size pretty shortly.

Honestly I’ve never had anything shrink significantly in the washer. Except for that one time when I was in high school and my mom accidentally washed a wool sweater on a hot cycle. That came out TIGHT. Not even my little sister could wear it.

Jules Myers said:

Oh by safely, I only meant without danger of pulling out a pair of jeans that now only a child can wear.

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If the denim is sanforized it is designed not to shrink in the wash. Like Monitor said it may be a bit tighter for a few days but then will stretch back out.

Hi, just joined and reading a few posts here and there (mainly because I bought an Aero Dustbowl) but now happened on this thread.

The last eight months I have been wearing IronHeart Selvedge 21oz 634 and more recently 25oz 888. As far as customer relations goes these guys are spot on (bit like chatting in the pub with my old bike club. Friendly guys giving great advice.) The jeans are great. Web site also gives details about washing etc. I do not own any other brands but am sure others are very good too. Wish I had gone for real jeans years ago!

No, I do not work in their Marketing dept.

Jules Myers said:

Oh by safely, I only meant without danger of pulling out a pair of jeans that now only a child can wear.

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Don't worry about it. I've accidentally cooked several of my jeans, had same effect on 'em as cold water soaking. Jeans are tough, only through heavy use will they come to their end but washing them won't harm your jeans.
Be careful about those lines that can happen from washing machine your jeans, though. Streaks or whatever they call them. You can't get rid of that crap no matter what you do.

Al 916 said:

Hi, just joined and reading a few posts here and there (mainly because I bought an Aero Dustbowl) but now happened on this thread.

The last eight months I have been wearing IronHeart Selvedge 21oz 634 and more recently 25oz 888. As far as customer relations goes these guys are spot on (bit like chatting in the pub with my old bike club. Friendly guys giving great advice.) The jeans are great. Web site also gives details about washing etc. I do not own any other brands but am sure others are very good too. Wish I had gone for real jeans years ago!

No, I do not work in their Marketing dept.

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We love IH here and yeah, they're great to deal with. Really honest lot and that's been especially clear during the early days of Brexit, when they tried to keep the prices for international customers the same as before, which of course wasn't possible without losing money.

Sanforized denim will ultimately shrink about an inch in the waist. It takes maybe three washes though. After the first wash you'll notice a little shrink but not much, but the next two washes is where the real shrink happens. And yes, I'm talking about sanforized, not un-sanforized, and I'm talking about a machine wash with cold water on a gentle cycle and hang drying. If you plan on washing your jeans this way always buy 1 inch larger in the waist when buying new raw sanforized jeans. Do not listen to the people that tell you to buy your regular size because the jeans will shrink a "tiny bit", but will then stretch back out LOL, this will NOT happen. It may be true after one wash or rinse, but after a few washes?....nope. You won't be able to wear them. Even crazier, some guys say to buy smaller than what you wear because they stretch out a great deal. Trust me because that was the advice I took when I was first interested in selvedge denim and bought several pairs at once, and learned it was all BS the hard way. There were people here on this very forum literally saying to buy 1 inch "smaller" than your size because they will stretch out that much and more after washing. I bet some of these clowns are still on here reading this LOL. Hundreds of $$ wasted listening to that stupid advice. I had to re-buy all new jeans

dwilson said:

If the denim is sanforized it is designed not to shrink in the wash. Like Monitor said it may be a bit tighter for a few days but then will stretch back out.

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That's total BS. Sanforization reduces but doesn't eliminate shrinkage. It won't shrink as much as un-sanforized, but it will shrink. Sanforized shrinks about 1/3 to 1/2 as much as un-sanforized. And no, it will not stretch back out to 100% of what it was. Prepare to ultimately lose about an inch in the waist after a few washes if you're using a washing machine

Cyber Lip said:

That's total BS. Sanforization reduces but doesn't eliminate shrinkage. It won't shrink as much as un-sanforized, but it will shrink. Sanforized shrinks about 1/3 to 1/2 as much as un-sanforized. And no, it will not stretch back out to 100% of what it was. Prepare to ultimately lose about an inch in the waist after a few washes if you're using a washing machine

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Yeah, I ran this question through Bravestar as well. They suggested to give them 2-3 warm water soaks or washes in the machine. If I wanted more, do a hot water machine wash—and put in the dryer— but results not necessarily predictable….

Cyber Lip said:

That's total BS. Sanforization reduces but doesn't eliminate shrinkage. It won't shrink as much as un-sanforized, but it will shrink. Sanforized shrinks about 1/3 to 1/2 as much as un-sanforized. And no, it will not stretch back out to 100% of what it was. Prepare to ultimately lose about an inch in the waist after a few washes if you're using a washing machine

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My Iron Hearts, which I've washed at least a dozen times hot, fit exactly the same everywhere as the day I bought them. Ultimately if you're buying jeans too large and hoping to shrink to fit with sanforized it likely won't work out. I'd almost say losing an inch in the waist sounds more like loomstate. I've always seem way more lasting shrink in the thighs.