Spring cleaning those jeans...

[Mr Badger]

Finally, Spring seems to have, um, sprung (sproing?) here in SW UK and I've devised a nifty, no-shrink method of de-funking your selvedge jeans.

I've never washed my selvedge jeans, as I like them to stay resolutely dark and the same size as when I bought 'em, but I've gotta say that they've got a little whiffy in the seat area from all those hours sat at my desk (beware the inherited office chair, that's all I'm gonna say!)...

As you no doubt know, using Febreeze to defunk clothing just locks the smell in. And while the much-loved 'vinegar and water' dousing did kinda work on jeans, it didn't seem to penetrate right through the double/triple seams, resulting in the return of unwanted funk near deadline time (they don't call it 'hot desking' for nothing, y'know!).

Therefore, I ran a sinkful of luke warm water, squirted in some travel wash and swirled in half a capful of handwashing solution (the kind you use for silk or other delicates, including gab), then gave the backside-only of each pair of jeans a good swoosh about. I then hung each pair over the side of the bath and sprayed 'em off with cold water using the shower attachment.

After that, I hung 'em outside on the line to dry.

The result: sweet-smelling denim with no colour loss and next-to-no shinkage! Phew... or, rather, phew-less!

These are the pairs of jeans I washed:

LVC S501xx 1944 dry
LVC S501xx 1944 boil wash
LVC S501xx 1944 faded
LVC 501xx 1933 dry
LVC 201xx 1920 dry
LVC 501xx 1955 dry
Lee 101z first Euro repro, dry
Lee 101z later, half-selvedge, dry
Lee 'Boss of the Road' painter jeans, 1960s, dry
Wrangler Blue Bell 13MWZ
Wrangler Blue Bell 13MWB
Dress-o-Rama Ace jeans, black, dry
Pointer Brand herringbone painter jeans, dry

 

[Paisley]

It's mostly the clothes dryer that shrinks cotton, I think. I rarely put clothes in the dryer because it helps them last longer.

 

[Edward]

Yes, I've always found the dryer to be a bad move.... the dryer, and high heat wash programmes. Of course, buying a good quality denim to begin with - as Mr Badger has obviously done - helps a lot. I had a pair of black Levis that stayed black for a good couple of years of heavy use, whereas a cheap pair of non-name ones ended up grey in a matter of months.

I'm afraid I don't have the paitience to go as full on as the method suggested; I normally machine wash my denim, though I do use the 'delicates' programme when not heavily soiled.

 

[Kevin Popejoy]

I routinely wash my selvedge inside out, cold water, delicate cycle, using woolite, then drip dry. Shrinkage and fading has never been an issue. k

 

[cptjeff]

You denim nuts are a weird bunch. Throw them in the washer. Inside out if you're concerned, hang dry if you're really concerned.

This kind of babying is sure as hell not what they did back in the day...

Hell, those wrangers are sanfordized, aren't they? They won't shrink much at all (3% from raw, I think the number is), even if you run them in a hot wash and a hot dryer.

 

[Lokar]

I've gotta agree cptjeff, I never even bother to turn mine inside out. I do hang dry, though, but I do that with all my clothes.

I only use our dryer on towels, really. I don't like what it does to clothes, and such a waste of electricity.

 

[Paisley]

You denim nuts are a weird bunch. Throw them in the washer. Inside out if you're concerned, hang dry if you're really concerned.

This kind of babying is sure as hell not what they did back in the day...

Hell, those wrangers are sanfordized, aren't they? They won't shrink much at all (3% from raw, I think the number is), even if you run them in a hot wash and a hot dryer.

Back in the day, a lot of clothes were hand-washed and hung out to dry. Lots of people (like my parents) didn't have washers, dryers or the electricity to run them. I imagine they took good care of the few clothes they had.

 

[cptjeff]

Back in the day, a lot of clothes were hand-washed and hung out to dry. Lots of people (like my parents) didn't have washers, dryers or the electricity to run them. I imagine they took good care of the few clothes they had.

But they WERE washed, that's the idea. Scrubbed hard against washer boards, which would be much rougher on fabric then modern washers. Or taken to the laundromat and washed there- and perhaps even tumble dryed.

Certainly, 'taking care of clothes' would not have meant leaving them unwashed completely for months like denim nuts do. Unless we're talking wool.

 

[Paisley]

I've washed clothes on washer boards. How rough it is on the clothes depends on who's doing the laundry.

I think everybody who has commented in this thread washes their jeans.

I've never had Wranglers, but my experience with Levi's is that they shrink in hot water and a hot dryer. That's how my mother washed them, and that's why I took over doing my own laundry in my teens: I was tired of jeans that kept shrinking.

I wash my jeans on the delicate cycle and hang them out to dry. They last for years, even though I only have two pairs and wear them often. (And no, I don't go months without washing them.) Given the price of jeans, I like the idea of not having to replace them very often.

If others want to wash their jeans in hot water on the permanent press cycle and put them in the dryer for an hour...[huh] it's their own business.