how to keep jeans rigid

[Zoopreme]

im scared to wash my jeans, because i might lose the regidness its got. how do i prevent that from happening on my first wash?

thanks

[DJ_Flame]

You can't, unless you wash in corn starch

[ringring]

Zoopreme - You're never going to keep dry jeans as rigid as when you bought them no matter how you wash them - as wearing them will have softened them up considerably.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. Jeans look great worn and washed, without too much fuss.

Plus, depending on what jeans you own, they may well retain plenty of stiffness after washing. For example most people I know who buy Warehouse and Denime, complain that the jeans are still too stiff after the first wash.

Dry cleaning is probably the best way to give them a thorough clean without changing the characteristics of dry denim too much. Just be careful if your jeans have fine leather labels as sometimes the heated perc evaporation process can ruin the leather.

Otherwise just wash in cold-to-tepid water, using a simple soap detergent if they are particularly dirty. (eg. pure vegetable, aka castille, soap)

Bear in mind, washing in water will have the following effects on denim:

Soften - soaking in water will remove the sizing, which will result in softer jeans.

Re-apply starch by spray or adding starch to the rinse, like commercial laundries do when they launder tablecloths and napkins. This is done by mixing some cornstarch in warm water and then adding to the final rinse. (about 5 heaped tablespoons of starch to a cup of warm water).

Lose shine - washing will also eliminate the shine that many dry denims have. The chintzy shine is comes from the denim being compressed in rollers at the mill. (Calandering effect).

Again, there's not a lot you can do to bring this back. They will regain a bit of shine with wear, especially in areas that get compression as well as friction (ie. seat and knees), although there will also be inevitable indigo loss in those areas too (looks great though).

I guess you could try calendering (maybe by pressing them on a hard surface with a heated iron) or beetling (beating the jeans with a wooden mallet to compress the denim) at home to get that shine, but hey, they're just jeans.

Shrink - denim yarn is woven under tension. Washing in water releases tension in the yarns which causes shrinkage and skewing. Jeans that have undergone some stabilising processes (eg. sanforizing, anti-skewing, stentering) will shrink & skew less. You can counter some of the shrinkage by stretching your jeans out whilst they are still damp.

'Hairy' - depending on the denim used, washing may make your jeans appear 'hairy', as water releases fine cotton fibres on the surface of the denim. There's not much you can do about this. If you're really anal, you could shave them off. Otherwise they'll just drop off with wear.

If you do a search on here for 'washing jeans' or 'washing denim' you'll find lots of different experiences and opinions.

[AKA]

HOT WATER WITH SUGAR

in the old embroderies industries, they use sugar to make the fabric regid.

That's the best way!

[Zoopreme]

hey thanks a lot for the info ringring and aka

much appreciated!

[poly800rock]

look at the starching thread, to keep jeans rigid, try liquid starch.

tons of stuff for sale now on ebay: corpus, Rag & Bone, Helmut Lang, levi's premium, Gap, vintage etc.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZtriggerkid

[ringring]

Quote:

look at the starching thread, to keep jeans rigid, try liquid starch.

--- Original message by poly800rock on Nov 26, 2005 12:13 PM

Liquid starch works, although it's rather overkill IMO - although with a concentrated starch like that, it's probably best to apply on the reverse side of the denim, and you may want to dilute it a bit.

Otherwise just repeated applications of starch spray will do it. It's just a case of building up the starch levels on the fabric. Spray and then leave to dry (you can also iron it dry, but be careful not to burn the starch) and repeat the process.

[M.O.A]

^ringring you have the most imformative posts.....jeez, im astounded everytime

F**K HYPE

solecollector.com

getlifted.net

overstand.net

[poly800rock]

I agree, I put a bunch on my denime's and I can barely walk, they stand up on their own and they feel like they're cutting me when I walk.. Oh well, was tired of wasting spray starch like that. I ended up using liquid starch in a water mix and just soaking a few more pairs, a lot easier on the legs......dilute!

tons of stuff for sale now on ebay: corpus, Rag & Bone, Helmut Lang, levi's premium, Gap, vintage etc.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZtriggerkid

[nairb49]

^^how much do you dilute it by? and do you soak the entire jean, for how long?

right now i'm just using spray-on until it feels wet through the other side...

nairb49

[poly800rock]

I put in like 2 of those cap fulls, and then a little bit of water so that the jeans could absorb the entire amount, then took it out, and air dried it, it might be overkill, but whatever. It's better than putting it straight on.

tons of stuff for sale now on ebay: corpus, Rag & Bone, Helmut Lang, levi's premium, Gap, vintage etc.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZtriggerkid