Monday, February 16, 2009

Day 167 | Dirty and damaged hems

These jeans have picked up quite a bit of dirt in the last 167 days. Most I could remove quite easily with a brush, my nails or a damp cloth. It's the same with the dirt you get on your hems from shoes. Just a couple of light brushes and it's gone. One day however I had these marks on my hems, and when I investigated further, I noticed that my hems have been damaged quite a bit on the fold I used to make. It's not torn through the crease, but if I didn't start wearing a belt when I did, perhaps they would have been. So not too serious.

I spoke to a friend of mine a while ago, who also only washed his one pair of jeans after 6 months. During that whole time he wore them with a big fold up on the hems, because they were too long, and they creases got damaged quite a bit. When he finally washed them, they shrunk about 3-4 cm. The fold-up now sits much higher than what they used to, so he does not need to fold them up any more because the length is now perfect. The problem is that folded down they look silly because the crease is damaged and folded up they're too short.

I hope these turn out really good after the first wash. I can only hope and see. Tomorrow I meet up with the guys from Dr.Denim again, just to say hello, have a cup of coffee and show them the progress. Really looking forward to it.

2 comments:

  1. Hi!!! Just want to ask if the waist of the raw jeans shrink too after washing? and will the whole jeans skrink?

    k thanks!! all the best! hope the jeans will turn out the way u want it to be after all these months!

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  2. As far as I understand, the idea is to wear the raw denim jeans for as long as you can, before you wash them. The reason for this is that the wear stretches them in all the right places. On your knees, the crotch area, the waste and wherever else. When you wash them then later, they shrink back to the normal size, or actually better, because now they're softer.

    I can see your concern, because your new raw denim, might feel too tight already, and you're scared that you'll end up with too small jeans around the waste after you've washed them.

    This should not be the case, because everything stretches from the wear, as does everything shrink with the wash.

    I only started wearing a belt with my jeans every day after the third month, when the waste was so stretched, that the jeans had trouble staying up. After the wash, I think the fit should be really good.

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