about hems; baked & crumpled effect

[cant_sleep]

how exactly do they get the baked and crumpled effect on the hems? is it at all possible for joe consumer or even a tailor to reproduce the look?

[snugglepony]

you're just talking about the hem itself, correct?

i'm not really sure what you mean by "baked," but the twisty/crumply wear pattern happens because the denim twists when it's washed and dried, then wears along the high points.

[cant_sleep]

how come the hems on raw jeans look like that too then if its from washing?

[sybaritical]

I've always been under the impression that the twist comes from the chainstitch pulling the hem of the denim tighter and is nothing to do with washing. But don't take my word for it.

[snugglepony]

the stitching at the hem certainly pulls the denim and might introduce a very slight bunching or twisting, but the real crumple comes from the denim twisting (in opposite directions, since the hem is turned on itself) when it shrinks and pulls agains the stitching, post-wash.

cant_sleep - do you have a picture of a new, raw hem that's crumpled? if the jeans are a one wash, or if they've been soaked, or even if you've stepped in some puddles, etc., some twisting will occur. i'm looking at them hem of my raw nudies (a few weeks old, never soaked, maybe a few puddles since i'm in portland) and there's really no discernible twist...

Edited by snugglepony on Mar 5, 2006 at 03:05 PM

[cant_sleep]

but will this happen to rehemmed jeans as well? i havent seen any rehemmed jeans that have that crumpled look, the hems never look right, they all look like like a large mound of african gorilla doodoo baking on a hot desert highway for 3.7 weeks

[horriblyjollyjinx]

soak the hems and dry them on some heat.

dontcaretoomuchforcrap CANT SKATE!!

Edited by horriblyjollyjinx on Mar 6, 2006 at 03:59 AM

[Paul T]

I believe ringring pointed out in another context that it's the chainstitching which influences the look of seams. Only chainstitched jeans have that crumpled effect - if you want to hem your jeans and get that look, have them shortened chainstitch (difficult, I know) and do it before the first wash.

[cant_sleep]

what do you mean by "shortened chainstitch" exactly? is that a type of chainstitch or am i reading it wrong

ill try drying them with heat too. that sounds like it would contribute to the effect

[snugglepony]

he means have them hemmed by someone who can chainstitch them - a standard sewing machine will not chainstitch, so you'll need to do some asking around.

[WhoGotMeIntoThis]

I thought that this look comes from washing as well. I came to that conclusion the other day after noticing that my shrink to fits DID NOT have this crumpled pattern. I noticed that a guy in front of me at Arby's had a pair of 501xx's (Old Logger looking guy) and his were well worn and had that crumpled pattern. I figured it just came from washing.

[pacioli]

For washed jeans, wash houses can get the crumples by pinching and tacking areas of the jeans with plastic staples and then spraying resin on the tacked area. This then goes into industrial ovens. When it comes out you get that crumpled look.

This eventually disappears with wash.

Sometimes handsand is added over the tacked areas to give it the faked wrinkle look. Interesting things happen when you put tacked denim into a stone wash. The tacks create pockets of fabric where the pumice stone does not touch. When the tacks are removed after laundry you see that much of the indigo remains while the surround area is worn down by abrasion from the stones. This process also creates a crumpled jeans effect.

The best way to spot the tacking process is by eye and touch. If you see an area that looks like it's been folded, simply look for small holes (much like the holes created by those plastic price tag holders). They are much more visible on the underside of the denim.

[ringring]

That's basically it. It's sometimes called 'crow's feet', 'chicken's feet' or 'zampa di gallina' (cockeral's feet).

Resin can be applied by spray or by dipping.

Can be done without tacking (tied with string), or just manually scrunched, sprayed with a bit of resin and stuck under a Hoffman press to set.

[pacioli]

I've never personally seen the tying with strings approach, although the possibility makes a lot of sense. The reason tacking is used is because it's quick and cheap. But of course that leaves holes. (on second thought strings may get in the way of the resin)

I would imagine a boutique LA or Japanese laundry would use the strings or other handling intensive methods besides tacking.

[aaronmetcalf]

there are also a slew of tailors who know how to re-attach a hem to your pants after re-sizing it. If you live in southern california there is a rippin' little old italian man by the name of Benny who has been tailoring forever & has a shop called "Spatola".

[khaltire]

can someone post some pics of what a crumpled effect looks like? is that the same as roping? I think I have an idea, but I just want to be sure

Damn, I wish I could find a chainstitcher in vancouver

[mizanation]

for whoever asked for a pic of what ringring calls the "roping effect":

[synthi]

Here's another example courtesy of swisloc's rather goygeous 5EP's from the evolution thread (hoping you wont mind me reposting the pic here)

Crazy roping!!!!!

[mizanation]

beautiful stuff. roping is a very underappreciated aspect of denim. good roping is hard to find as it requires good denim, a good chainstitch, and good washing (soaking). miss one of the elements and you got flat hems...

[RockTheVote]

can someone post some pics of what a crumpled effect looks like? is that the same as roping? I think I have an idea, but I just want to be sure

Damn, I wish I could find a chainstitcher in vancouver

The baked or crumpled effect it's like the 3d wishker above your thigh area.

The best way to spot the tacking process is by eye and touch. If you see an area that looks like it's been folded, simply look for small holes (much like the holes created by those plastic price tag holders). They are much more visible on the underside of the denim.

You can see big hole is because the washing place is too lazy to change the needle..

[swooc]

Here's a pic of the hem (cheap levis 514 raw) my bro has worn. Although not as 3D as the above pics, i think the roping effect is still pretty good without chainstitching.

[maydenchina]

whered you get raw 514s???

[swooc]

The Hong Kong Levi's store were practically giving them away at a price of $30au (around $20us). Though this was sometime mid 2006. They still might have them there i don't know.