Day 223 | Two hundred posts

Today I managed to post the two hundreth post on this blog. Never thought I'd get this far. I've been wearing the jeans quite a bit again lately, and every now and again when I have them on, I look at the marks I've made on them over the past 223 odd days. It's such a pleasure to realise that every one of the marks is of my own doing, and not done by some machine in some sort of denim process. Mine look like only mine can and that's what I love about raw denim.

There's such nice lines on the knees, both on the front and the back. Then there's the moustache lines on the front below the pockets. The back pockets also shpw some nice marks. The best thing of all for me is the colour. In the beginning they were black/blue, and now they're much lighter, and a lot softer.

One of my favourite magazines at the moment is one called Monocle. It's basically a briefing on global affairs, business, culture and design. You can check it out online at monocle.com. They cover a lot of current fashion and mix that up with future trends. It's with this that I stumbled across a story on a new denim shop that opened in The Netherlands called Teneu De Nímes. According to the co-founder Menno van Meurs, "Our dream was to create a denim haven in Amsterdam". You can check them out at tenuedenimes.com.

On day 139 I wrote a bit about "Serge de Nimes" and where the word denim and the word jeans comes from, if you're interested to know.

Day 102 | Brush the marks away

I picked up this mark on my right shin. It's not really a stain, because it didn't soak into the material. I don't know what it was, because it was dry already when I saw it the first time, but it looked like a mix of chocolate and mud.

I managed to get most of it off with my fingers and nails, as you can see from the top photograph. The rest I managed to brush away or off the denim.

The reason I use this brush, is because it is soft, and doesn't damage the denim. It also manages to penetrate the material just enough to get the dirt out, with a couple of hard brushes, leaving the denim as good as new.

Day 92 | The front pockets (2nd comparison)

Today I compare the front pockets. A lot more creases and by far more marks everywhere. The main changes are the creases from sitting in front of my laptop everyday, in the places where my hips bend. It's like my jeans are permanently moulded into that "sitting" shape, even when I take them off. The pictures on the left in the two top photographs is from day 14 and the middle pictures from day 59 and the right side picture is from today.

There's plenty of light blue marks from the wear on the button holes as well, and as I mentioned on day 90, a lot more shiny from not having been washed for 92 days. Will be interesting to see how shiny they'll become after the full six months with no wash.

I spoke about my front pocket wallet on day 33, and showed photos of the marks it usually makes on all my jeans. The bottom photograph show what the mark looks like at the moment on these jeans. Much more visible than on day 59. Tomorrow I compare the bottom hems.

Day 85 | Wax, oil and dye combination stains

I've been covering stains on clothing for the past 2 days, covering oil, protein and dye stains. It's been really interesting for me as to how many possibilities there are for removing stains, but that not all methods work for all stains. A lot of the methods are the same in principle, with a slight variation in the theme. The most important thing to remember is that bleach and denim don't mix well, so it's better not to get a stain in the first place.

As I wrote on Day 84 and Day 83, to remove stains from clothing, you have to first determine what created the stain. Fortunately we usually know what we have spilled, dripped or dumped on our clothes, but it's the times when you get home with something on your clothing, that it gets a little more difficult. Reading the label of the product that created the stain, should help in narrowing down your cleaning methods. Below is a list of some common stains and general removal tips.

Wax/Oil/Dye Combination Stains

• Ball-point ink
• Candle wax
• Carbon paper
• Carbon typewriter ribbon
• Crayon
• Eye make-up (mascara, pencil, liner, shadow)
• Floor wax
• Furniture polish
• Lipstick
• Livestock paint
• Pine resin
• Shoe polish
• Tar

"Firstly, spray or sponge with dry cleaning solvent like perchloroethylene or trichloroethylene, then rub a heavy-duty liquid detergent into the stained fabric area and rinse thoroughly. Secondly, soak the stained garment in a dilute solution of all-fabric powdered bleach."

"If the above steps do not remove the stain you can try soaking the garment in a dilute solution of liquid chlorine bleach and water if the clothing is white or light coloured. Warning - bleach damage to coloured garments is irreversible. Since bleaching can alter the colour of the garment, bleach the whole garment and not just a spot. If the stain is not gone in 15 minutes, it cannot be removed by bleaching. More bleaching will only weaken the fabric."

Other common combination stains

• Barbecue sauce
• Calamine lotion
• Ketchup or tomato sauce
• Cocoa or chocolate
• Face make-up (powder, rouge, foundation)
• Gravy
• Hair spray

"First, rub a heavy-duty liquid detergent into the stain then rinse thoroughly. Second, soak the stained garment in a dilute solution of all-fabric powdered bleach."

"If the above steps do not remove the stain you can try soaking the garment in a dilute solution of liquid chlorine bleach and water if the clothing is white or light coloured. Warning - bleach damage to coloured garments is irreversible. Since bleaching can alter the colour of the garment, bleach the whole garment and not just a spot. If the stain is not gone in 15 minutes, it cannot be removed by bleaching. More bleaching will only weaken the fabric."

"Before any spot removal process you should test the product on a non-visible corner of the garment. No method is always one hundred percent successful. Success can be thwarted by length of time the stain has set, the material and dyes that make up the fabric and the make up of the stain itself."

Hope this has helped a little with regards to removing stains. It's sure given me some food for thought next time I grab the general "all purpose" stain remover.

Day 84 | Protein and dye stains

Yesterday I looked a bit at oil stains, and how to get rid of them. Today I'll try and do protein and dye stains.

As I wrote yesterday, to remove stains from clothing, you have to first determine what created the stain. Fortunately we usually know what we have spilled, dripped or dumped on our clothes, but it's the times when you get home with something on your clothing, that it gets a little more difficult. Reading the label of the product that created the stain, should help in narrowing down your cleaning methods. Below is a list of some common stains and general removal tips.

Protein stains

• Baby food
• Milk
• Baby formula
• Mucous
• Blood
• Cheese sauce
• Mud
• Cream
• Pudding
• Egg
• Urine
• Feces
• Vomit
• Gelatin
• White glue; school paste
• Ice cream

"Protein stains should simply be soaked and then agitated in COLD water. Hot water will cook the stain into the fabric. After rinsing out the stain you can launder normally."

Dye Stains

• Cherry, blueberry
• Color bleeding in wash (dye transfer)
• Felt-tip pen (permanent ink-may not come out)
• Grass
• India ink
• Kool-Aid
• Mercurochrome
• Mustard
• Tempera paint

"Dye stains are one of the most difficult to remove. First, soak stain with a heavy-duty liquid detergent and let set for an hour or more. Then rinse thoroughly. Second soak the stained garment in a dilute solution of all-fabric powdered bleach."

"If the above steps does not remove the stain you can try soaking the garment in a dilute solution of liquid chlorine bleach and water if the clothing is white or light coloured. Warning - bleach damage to coloured garments is irreversible. Since bleaching can alter the colour of the garment, bleach the whole garment and not just a spot. If the stain is not gone in 15 minutes, then it cannot be removed by bleaching. More bleaching may weaken the fabric."

Tomorrow I'll look at Wax/Oil/Dye and other combination stains. It just seems that the list of stuff that can stain your clothing is endless, but fortunately the ways of getting the stains out, are too.

Day 46 | My knees

When I was a kid, I had these permanent white marks on the knees of my jeans. Either from sitting on the floor with my legs folded when I was drawing or from wearing them out on the carpet, from playing cars and trucks in the passageway. Those days are no long gone, but the knees on jeans still get a terrible beating from bending your knees when you walk, up stairs down stairs, when you fold your legs when you're sitting, or when you're doing all sorts of things.

However, it's all better again, after a wash. The material relaxes in the water, and the stretching returns, pretty much to normal. Not the case with my jeans though. They're not seeing water for another 135 days, so the knees are starting to show some real stretch. But I have been wearing them every day for the past 46 days. And the idea with the raw denim, is to wear it "in", and then wash it, so that when the denim shrinks, the fit should be perfect. That, in a nutshell, is what I am trying to achieve here. But I'll have to wait and see.

Day 39 | A lot of dust

We had our bedroom and entrance foyer, in our apartment, painted this week. We moved all the furniture into the rest of the house, with our bed in the lounge.

The week of painting started with the ripping off, of all the old wallpaper. Because the building is so old, and the walls are made from wood, with a clay and reed covering, it made a lot of dust. It got in everywhere. Even past all the sheets we hung in the doorways. After ripping off the wallpaper, came the filling up of the old walls, a new covering over that and then the paint. Really a tough environment to keep the jeans clean in, especially because they're not getting washed in six months.

I got a lot of dust on them, which brushing seemed to get out. There's still some light spots on the denim now, but maybe it'll go away during the next week. Not permanent marks. And I am especially glad that I didn't get any paint on them. That would have forced me to get some water on them. Or what is best to get paint off denim? Perhaps letting the paint dry, then sort of scratching and brushing it off? I'll have to look into that.

Day 25 | Denim and washes

I don't know why I decided to start my day with a run, but I did. It's this training program I'm on that said 6 kilometres today. I must admit that I did feel better afterwards, knowing I did some training today, but running itself, as a sport, is just plain silly. Fortunately Nikeplus.com and my iPod have made it easier for me to track my progress and listen to music on the way. Otherwise the fastest I would go is a brisk walk.

Today I wanted to have a look at different denim washes. I mean you know how many pairs you have in your closet, and none of them are same right? Some have marks on the knees, some on the bum, some on the shins, and so on. None made by yourself. Well maybe if you've had them for a while have you added you share of the marks. I have really started enjoying the raw aspect of my jeans. Every mark on them is from me and they won't ever look like anyone else's. They will just keep on changing as I wear them. Below are two of the washes from Dr.Denim.

Rinse Wash - "Gentle water wash that shrinks the fabric and removes excess dye".



Stone wash - "The jeans are washed along with pumice or ceramic objects. The stones mainly wear along seams and edges. The effect on the fabric will vary depending on the length of the wash".

Day 18 | Dry cleaning

According to Dr.Denim, when you reach the point of no return, and you absolutely have to clean your jeans, start off with a gentle dry clean. To me that also means to use your nails and a brush to get some marks out. But be careful not to scratch too hard and make permanent marks on the denim.

I've had 2 marks that I cleaned off this way today. Works well, and means I don't have to yet get my jeans wet. This way of cleaning seems as important as airing the jeans, when you're not in them. I show here how I hang mine up at night, and open them up to get some air. It's a good way to prevent them from becoming too smelly.

Today's effect from Dr.Denim is the turn-up effect. The cause: Constant use of big turn-ups. The result: Horizontal rips on both legs.