How much can a jacket really be shrunk?

[armscye]

I did an experiment over the weekend in an effort to determine just how much a leather jacket could be shrunk. The piece in question has a spectacular heavy goatskin hide, but it's a 50 long, and I am a 44. So the goal was to see just how much I could shrink the jacket. In my experience goat is one of the more shrinkable leathers.

It had been previously hot water washed with only a moderate change in size, so I decided to go all-in: I set my washer for extra soak and wash time, Hot Wash, Warm Rinse, then added an entire teapot of boiling water to the fill water. At the end of the wash, I put it in my dryer for 90 minutes on the highest setting.

Net result: barely measurable-- felt like a 48 rather than a 50. No more than an inch of shrinkage in length or chest measurement. The grain popped amazingly at the seams, but otherwise, you could barely tell the difference.

Obviously, your mileage may vary, but this experience makes me wonder whether the concern about moderate wetting of jackets is always valid.

 

[Jeff M]

Goat hide does not shrink much...if at all.
Steer/horse hide more amenable to shrinking with the "hot water treatment"

Re; "moderate wetting of jackets"....I do this with room temp water to give the leather character, soften it, crease it and mold it to my body, not to shrink it.
Again, works best with HH and steer.

 

[Azog]

I've bought quite a few cheap vintage jackets which often smell of mothballs to the point of making your eyes water or have a very musty smell so I wasn't too concerned about washing them. I've found it's how you dry them which makes them shrink or stretch. My best successes where the sleeves were too long(on a jacket which didn't smell) was to soak just the sleeves then suspend the sleeves on a broomstick in front of a radiant heater till dry with close supervision. You could see the steam flying off it. Sleeves ended up 1.5inches shorter. Another jacket had sleeves too short so I soaked the sleeves and then dryed them lying flat on a towel and stretching them often during the drying process. Managed to get them about an inch longer.
I really recommend just soaking sleeves only if they are the problem. If you're trying to shrink a jacket with zips the leather may shrink but the zip wont so you end up with a wobbly zip. I prefer a straight well sewn in zip look.
I got the confidence to do this by reading all I could about it here and don't recommend washing any jacket if you will be upset if you wreck it.

 

[Boyo]

Hmmm a size 48 goat skin jacket... Just my size..what are you gonna do with it now

 

[armscye]

Thanks for sleeve shortening insights, Azog. My problem is the reverse: I have gorilla arms with a 37 inch sleeve. But I've had great luck lengthening sleeves by putting 2-3 filled 20 ounce soda bottles in each sleeve, and as necessary zip-tying the wrist area to hold therm in. As the jacket air dries from a washing, the sleeves can stretch about 1 1/2 inches.