why wont they fade?

[lagoni]

hey all you denim heads.

would you please help a noob out?

at the start of 2005 had a couple of cheap mondays, which i wore normally before washing. (my first raw pair) (i didnt know that i had to break em in and they would be ruined if i washed wrong)

then i came to the washing part. i washed it normal and it came out shit.

they shrank so much, that i could'nt fit them at all.

i had no idea what i did wrong and i got mad, because my new jeans were useless now.

i then bought my second raw jeans - nudie thinn finn and had read that you need to

wear them a long time to get a cool effect .. i then learned about honeycombs and fading and so on.

after the 6-7 months of wear i washed them. in the back of my mind i was a bit scared,

because of my past mistake. i went for it and it came out exactly the same way, to my misery - couldn't fit them and the effects were just plain ugly.

___

i now need your guidance .. i have read about how to wash your jeans, but i do all of this,

and still it comes out wrong .. i have seen some APCs by TragicBliss in the Evoluiton of jeans thread which are absolutely amazing. that's exactly the way i want my jeans, but i have NO idea how to do it.

i machine wash my jeans turned inside out at a setting called "handwash - 30 degrees" with detergent which says "no added bleach, optical white and under 5% enzymes". that's the thing i should use, right?

could someone also tell me why my jeans shrink so much? :s i don't get it and i do not want to ruin my new Cheap Monday Raw Regular jeans. i got them the 1st of june and already now, theres no honeycombs forming - could this be because of a more baggy fit? cause i've seen some Evisus and Nudie SS with honeycombs on here and i don't know why i can't get that.

will appreciate all help!

thx in advance.

[Whodinihimself]

Dont worry about your jeans...you only washed them once...all hope is not lost!

1) Jeans are made of cotton...cotton shrinks....you should know this by now (If your jeans are sanforized you can wear them raw because they wont shrink much...if they arent youre better off warm soaking them for 15 minutes when theyre brand new...so as to get most of the shrinking out of the way.....this is because you dont want the honeycomb/whisker areas shifting alot after future washes)...you mightve actually did yourself a favour by washing them now...

2) They will stretch back (or even beyond) their original fit..so just wear them tight for a while and theyre loosen up...

3) Starch spray the crotch area and behind the knees of your jeans whenever they start to feel too soft in those areas....wear them while theyre wet from the starch and squat down every few minutes until theyre dry

4) Do stuff in your jeans...physical stuff...the only way to get them to fade faster is to wear them day in and day out..and break a sweat!...Tragic skateboards in his jeans...Ryu bikes on a daily basis in his Sugarcanes.....they move around alot and it shows....if you dont skate, find something else to do in your raws thatll make you break a sweat...

..Learn to swim..

Edited by Whodinihimself on Jun 5, 2006 at 11:05 AM

[Whodinihimself]

oh...and lets see some pics of them

..Learn to swim..

[lagoni]

thx for the reply!

are my washing instructions okay?

i have no pictures of the cheap mondays or the nudie thinn finn

as they really did shrink to the point where it was impossible to fit in them.

i know that they shrink, and the get looser with wear, but i head no idea,

that they would shrink THAT much... i sold them to a girl, which almost could fit them.

what is this starch? can you buy it everywhere? i live in denmark and i have no idea

what it's called in danish, so can you describe it?

i can take som pix of my new cheap monday regular, but there really isn't much to show.

the denim is already surprisingly soft after only a few days of wear..

[Tob]

I think you will get alot wiser when you search this site for a few minutes a day for sometime, it really helps you answering these kind of questions.

Your washing was ok, it does not matter that much, though a soapproduct based on natural ingredients might be better (you can get this at any shop that specializes in bio-products)

Starch is available everywhere. Its the stuff that people use when they want stiff shirts or pantalons so they can iron them more easily. The danish word is stivelse (lol). Your local supermarket probably has it but under some different name. You need the can-version, so youcan spray it.

good luck, oh and your jeans are not ruined, if you keep wearing them they will turn out cool in the end.