Stretch the seams after the wash

Before I washed my first pair of raw denims, I was chatting to Alexander from Dr.Denim and his first bit of advice to me was to stretch the seams after the wash. The reason he said was that the thread used for the seams, are different than that used in the actual denim, so it sort of pulls together after the wash. The shrinking also doesn't help with the seams. What you got to do after the wash is to grab the crotch and the hem, and pull, as you can see in the picture above. Give it a good stretch, and it should help with getting the seams back to "normal".

The front of the knees before and after the wash

Here we go with the knees before and after the wash. This is the front. Three things are very clear. For one the stretching in the knees after 6 months of wear. The second thing is the colouration after the wash and thirdly there's the shinyness of the jeans, on the left, after 6 months of wear.

I love the way the folds are so clear on the left, but after the wash they're just marks on the denim. It's why I do these tests.

Day 184 After the wash

I spent last night washing the jeans after 180 days. I'll post some photos in the following week on the wash and what I did, but I thought I'd just publish the photos of what they look like today. One thing you can immediately see is the shrinking. I have had the hems rolled up twice with a rather large fold, but as you can see this morning, they're rolled up much less and thinner. They are fitting extremely well and feel great. Much softer and I think the colour and markings came out great.

More photos to come.

Day 11 Ormond gets a wash

18 months and one wash. And they came out beautifully. These Ormonds were bought a week after I washed my first pair of Harris jeans, but unlike Harris, I didn't wear them everyday. They just went into my jeans collection and I wore them maybe once a week. Now that they're washed, you can see the wear and tear much better. That's why I prefer starting with raw denim, as it's after the first wash, that you see the individuality in that pair of jeans.

Over the next couple of days I'll publish some photos of what they looked like when I bought them, what they looked like before the wash, and what they look like today.

Day 209 | Ink on the floor

I've been going through my photographs and found the one on the left. It's one of the oldest I have, which means the jeans were in their first week of "wear". There's not a mark on the denim yet, and no stretching.

The second photograph is of the ink running from the denim after they were washed for the first time. I was a little nervous on the washing day, because I was scared I would lose too much colour from the jeans. I did not have the washing machine on the spin cycle, so that saved a lot of ink, but there was still a lot of ink on the floor when I took them out. As you can see on day 184, when I compare the jeans before and after the wash, there's not a lot of difference in the darkness of the jeans. So I suspect that I didn't lose too much ink.

On another note, I was trawling through some of my favourite sites and stumbled upon an an article on this book, called "The Denim Book", which is produced by a company called Lightning. You can buy your copy from SuperDenim.co.uk. It's basically a who's who of the Japanese Denim industry. 70 brand owners, designers and retail managers were interviewed and photographed. They presented their favourite vintage to sample denim pieces. The book gives equal space to unknown brands as it does to the well known brands, which is a big change in the story line of previous Lightning books.

Next week I'm comparing the jeans again, but only month one vs. what they'll look like next week. They're still my favourite pair of jeans, but it's been a welcome change to wear my light coloured denims again.

Day 202 | Some more about shrinking

I was wearing these jeans every day for 6 months and writing about it every day, right up until day 195. I then decided to only write about them every week, on Mondays, and it's been so tough. I thought it was going to be easy, to write less, not realising just how much part of my daily life this blog has become. There's still so much to learn, and so many people I meet via this blog, but I have other projects like this, which are now starting to take up a lot more of my time, but more on that, another day.

I was asked in a comment this week just how much the jeans have shrunk, so I thought I'd answer the question in this post. If I was to buy raw denim jeans again, I would make sure that they fit me perfectly around the waste and in length, or perhaps a bit longer. You have no control over how much they will shrink when you wash them the first time, so I wouldn't try and judge the right size by that when I buy new jeans.

The thing with wearing the jeans for 6 months have a lot to do with stretching the denim in all the right places naturally, by just wearing them. When they then shrink, they shrink all over, hence a better fit all over.

Have a look at the two photos of the legs of the jeans, just behind the knees. They are the same size. By that I mean the creases are the same size in all the photos if you were to put them on top of each other, but the width of the legs are narrower in the washed versions on the right. And narrower by a lot. My jeans shrunk by around 2-3 cm all over, which seems like a lot when you look at a new pair, but not so much on a 6 month old pair that's been "worn in" and stretched.

Look at the difference in where the jeans hang over the heels of my shoes in the picture on the left. Photo one is before the wash and photo two is after the wash. They shrunk a lot, but now the length is perfect and I don't have to wear a belt or fold the hems up any more. So to finish off, don't worry about the shrinking when you buy a new pair of jeans, because 6 months is a long time, and a lot still needs to happen before you wash them the first time.

Day 194 | I'm so skinny

The day after the first wash, when I had the jeans laid out on the table to photograph, I noticed these "wear" marks just below the back pocket on both sides. The top photograph has two pictures. The left one from before the wash and the right hand one from after the wash. You can see them on the jeans before the wash, but they appear to just be folds, or creases. After the wash you can clearly see the denim is damaged, meaning really worn in. It must be from each time I sit down, when the denim folds and then flattens out again.

It's probably cause I'm so skinny. If I had a bit more meat on my bones, or specifically around my bum, the jeans would've been tighter, hence less creasing. Not that it's problematic or anything. Just a point of observation. And I'm really glad my mom doesn't read this blog or I'll soon get an email, telling me to eat some more food, cause it's not healthy being so skinny. hehe.

Day 193 | 360 degree before and after

Here's the same photos I posted on day 190, but in higher resolution. You can clearly see how much they shrunk by looking at the length. The top ones are after 6 months of wear and the bottom ones from the day after their first wash.

Just have a look at how stretched the knees were before the wash. They fit much better now. Less creases, less stretches, but more wear and a much better colour.

Day 192 | The back pockets before and after

Here's two more high resolution images comparing the back pockets. I still can't believe there's so much difference in the jeans. The top photo is with 6 months worth of wear and no wash (day 182). The bottom photo is on the following day (day 183), after the wash.

The jeans have even changed colour slightly. They started off as Blue/Black, and now has become a little lighter and bluer. The shrinking has worked wonders. I have them on again today, just because they really are my favourite pair at the moment, having spent a full 6 months in them and nothing else, and they fit perfectly. I would highly recommend doing the same. Not necessarily wearing them every day for 6 months as I did, but alternating between them and maybe 2 other pairs for perhaps a year, then washing them. The fit will be real good.

Day 190 | Before and after

I've always wanted to do a 360 degree display of the jeans. The top row is on the day of the wash and the bottom row is the day after the wash.

You can clearly see how stretched the knees are from 6 months of wear and how much tighter they are after the wash. The same with the wrinkles and creases behind the knees. Now they're just softer folds. The jeans have also shrunk about 2, maybe 3 centimetres in length, so now they're not as bunched up at the bottom above my shoes. In the top photos I have a belt on, where I now wear the jeans without a belt, as I did when I bought them. Then there's also the colouring. Much lighter and tighter and the marks are now much more visible.

Will publish the same sort of photos tomorrow, but much bigger I think.

Day 187 | The front pockets (5th comparison)

The front pockets for me, show the biggest changes in the jeans. Not just before and after the wash, but since day 1, up until day 183, because of the marks made by my front pocket wallet and the general creases or moustache marks. The pictures in the top two photographs are from the beginning of each of the 6 months and the right hand picture in both is after the first wash.

It's strange to see and feel the difference in the washed denim. It's softer, with more character, yet it shrunk quite a bit. They're by far more comfortable, even though I know they will stretch again from all the wear. Perhaps another wash in 6 months will show other changes. Perhaps a hole or two?

The bottom photo is of my front pocket wallet and the marks it made on the right hand front pocket. I had it in that pocket every day for 6 months. I'm really happy with how they turned out after 6 months and the first wash. Tomorrow I'll compare the bottom hems.

Day 185 | The back pockets (5th comparison)

I wanted to show before and after photographs, but decided to rather carry on with my comparison series, which show the jeans in the process of getting older and older and more worn in. I have now included the comparison from the last day I wore the jeans before the wash, and the first day after the wash. Now there's seven photographs taken on the beginning of every month in the past 6 months.

There's a big difference between the washed and unwashed pair in the last two images. The washed jeans are not as shiny and the creases and folds are now only light blue lines on the washed jeans. The shrinking caused the material to tighten quite a bit. Tomorrow I'll compare the inner seams.

Day 184 | Before and after

Today was the first day that I had the jeans on again after washing them. I have to say that they now fit really well, and very much softer than when I bought them. They shrunk length-wise perhaps 2 centimetres, even though I stretch the seams out directly after the wash. When I have them on without shoes, they hang perfectly just above my ankles. Width-wise they shrunk a bit too, and they now fit better than ever. I do not have to wear a belt any more.

The colouring is also fantastic, because it doesn't seem like I lost too much dye in the wash. As you can see in the top photograph, with a comparison of the last day ,unwashed, and the first day ,washed. You can see that they're narrower around my legs and a bit shorter.

Only on the close-ups can you see that all the shine is gone from 6 months of wear. Over the next couple of days I'm going to do comparisons of them on the last day, unwashed, and the first day, washed.

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 80 | Number 3005

Here's an interesting website, that covers the life of a pair of jeans over a period of two years. The page was translated by Google Translate, and I think it was in Japanese originally (View original page). I'm trying to find report one, but my Japanese is not so good, so it's taking rather long. If you can find it, then please let me know.

I really like what the jeans look like, and how they have changed over that time. This is exactly why I have a problem with buying pre-washed, pre-worn jeans and pre-marked jeans. They might be a little bit more comfortable from day one, but they don't seem to last as long as raw denim jeans, where you get to wear them in and you get to leave your mark on them over time.

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 42 | Red Devil

I mentioned on day one that I bought these jeans at a store in Gothenburg, called Red Devil. One of my favourite stores in town, although I haven't bought anything at the store before or after the jeans. Don't really know why, but I do like the clothing they sell and what the store looks like inside.

I was in there about a week ago, just to go and have a look at another pair of Dr.Denim jeans, called Terence. A really nice pair, that has a sort of indigo colour in what I could make out was two different pairs, called "Dark used" and "Blue used". Definitely on my list to buy after I'm done with this experiment in approximately 139 days on the 2nd or 3rd of March. Or let's just make it on the 3rd of March officially, when I'll be photographing the jeans, unwashed, for the last time, and compare them afterwards, when they have just been washed.

As I said, the Terence pair looks like a really nice pair of jeans, but is 100kr more expensive than the Harris jeans I have, because of the wash and the treatment. I think I'll go for the "Blue used".

Day 40 | Haris Blue Black Raw front and back

So I'm forty days into this test and things are going well so far. I'm definitely learning a lot by writing about this. I know more about dry-cleaning than I did before, that's for sure.

We were invited for Sunday lunch by a Chinese friend of ours. She made some genuine Chinese food, along with some really good Green tea. It was real nice. She has a really cute cat, and was inspired by this blog to start one of her own, writing about the life and times of her cat. Not really my cup of tea, but then again who wants to read a blog, like this one, on a pair of jeans getting older and not being washed?

I realise today that I haven't shown a full frame photo of the jeans front and back, so I decided to take the opportunity of an empty room, because of the painting this week, to do just that. I liked what the denim looked like on the bare wooden floor, so I took quite a few photographs, which I'll show over the next couple of days. And like I said yesterday, I am still going to find out, how to get paint out of denim.

Day 28 | The moustache wash

Twenty eight days in, and the back of the knees are really creased. It hangs, or rests at night for about 8-9 hours before being worn again, so the daily wear is really taking its toll. There's not a lot of colouration on the the denim yet, because if you flatten the creases, the colour is still all blue black. Look at Day 13 for a comparison so far.

Apparently there's a specific way to wash and treat denim, which I included below, called the moustache wash. It's when you use sandpaper on creases like those on my jeans, and then wash the jeans to give them a more worn effect. Don't really know if it's my kind of style, or if I am just too tired to also now get the sandpaper out and start sanding.

Obviously there are thousands of different ways to treat denim, but Dr.Denim only has nine different washes on their website. We have the final three here today. I'll look into getting others from other manufacturers, including different types of raw denim.

Tint - "The jeans are toned in the wash, often yellow, brown or green to give them a vintage character or a dirty feel."


Sandblasting - "Before being washed, the jeans are sandblasted. This makes them look naturally worn."


Moustache - "Before being washed the jeans are treated with sandpaper, or something similar, to give a worn, creased look to the knees and crotch."

Day 21 | Unagi

Unagi was the first ever Dr.Denim jeans style.

According to the Dr.Denim website, "The name Unagi comes from an episode of Friends in which Ross takes up karate. Unagi also means eel in Japanese. The very first Unagi jeans are in fact still around, though unfortunately they've been washed twice, purely accidentally."

"However, there's no doubt about their great feel. The wear is perfect, the fabric is comfortable and the design is timeless."

Don't you just love it when a company talks that way about their products? Totally in love with what they do, and totally dedicated to bring you a quality product, made with love and the best material out there. Really glad I purchased mine.

Today's jeans effect from Dr.Denim is the Nervous effect. Cause: Rubbing hands on lap when feeling stressed or uncomfortable. Result: Even wear on both thighs.