Will old leather stretch

[MGfan]

I purchased a leather jacket from the late 70s early 80s from an online auction site. The size on the jacket should be a perfect fit if not a little large. I can fit into it but it looks like I’ve been poured into it. I know newer leather jackets will stretch as you wear them but how about older leather?

 

[Will Zach]

^^
It won't stretch just by wearing it. You can moisten the leather and wear it wet until dry with a hoodie underneath, and it will definitely stretch. Or moisten it and stuff with pillows, let dry, and it will stretch. There is a thread "Do try this at home", where @Marc mndt describes how to do it. It works. But the jacket must be well moistened (not soaked), and let dry under tension.

 

[El Marro]

I’ve had a couple jackets that fit like this and I tried everything I could think of to stretch them out a bit. After a couple weeks of trying I had to accept that they might’ve stretched a bit, but nowhere near as much as I wanted.

 

[MGfan]

I’ll give the wetting it and wearing it a try. Hopefully it will work. If not to goodwill it goes.

 

[navetsea]

depending if the lining will stretch, the leather can obviously stretch at whatever age when wet, but if the lining is made at the size that actually limits you, or in material probably man made material (in some way plastic) then it will not stretch. probably if you break open a seam on the lining you will be surprised that the jacket actually fits, and then you can either hand sew back more generously on places that was too restrictive or send it to alteration service shop to sew back the lining.

 

[handymike]

This happened to me. The 60 year old jacket stretched perfectly, but the liner needed replacement afterwards.

 

[Flying Monkey]

50 year old stitching might or might not hold up to an aggressive stretching procedure. Dryish leather can shred too if pulled too hard. I would move the jacket on and get something that fits properly. My experience has been that you will get less than 1/2 a size even with an involved stretching which I would not do on an old jacket.