Mega-Extreme hot water treatment after 6 months

[fishmeok]

I thought this was kind of interesting. I bought one of John's pre-production Dubows last year and it was WAY too big. After 6 months and several wash/dry experiments (I mean washer and hot dryer) the fit is comfortable, broken in, and I think at least a size and a half, if not two sizes smaller. The arms are 2-3" shorter, and the shoulders are tight on me with anything heavier than a shirt. There has been no degradation of the jacket, knits, liner, or zipper, and it still smells pretty new. I treated the jacket with Pecards after a couple times through the wash just on general principle.
Cheers
Mark

This is an original picture, the day I received the jacket on the left, todays picture directly below:

Current, without flash:

 

[Anonymous]

Nice shrink to fit job. Well done looks the part IMHO.

 

[rick.canavar]

Yeah, it looks really nice.

 

[greyhound52]

Looks great. Real guts to do that to a leather jacket.

 

[Vcruiser]

Now to me...
....the after pic is a near perfect fit....and blouses like it should around the waist.
Looks good!
Van

 

[dujardin]

wow, splendid result.
just speaking for myself, i will never dare to proceed as you done on such a jacket.
but well done.


byeeeeeeeeee marcel

 

[Geir]

Good result! That sort of thing takes courage. I put a Willis & Geiger 90ies repro A2 through the washing machine and the dryer and it ended up in the garbage can.

 

[Roughwear]

Wow!That is amazing, such a transformation. Have you let John know?

 

[fishmeok]

Thanks for the comments guys! Finally, vindication! (my wife just rolls her eyes when I start talking about "the best fit")

I wasn't too worried about the jacket itself- from the obvious quality of the componants I felt they would hold up well. I also ran this by John and he didn't forsee any problems. I can understand the lining on a W&G coming apart- which is a good thing on those jackets, that has to be the worst lining material I've ever worn. I've also done this to my old Avirex A-2 and have had good results.

I need to talk to John for sewing and construction advice at some point, but I don't want to bug him until I feel like I can make a straight stitch for more than 5 inches...

I probably would not have done this if it had been a production jacket that I had $800 into, but I figured if it ended up being too big I would just pass it on to someone else on the list and get another. I guess it would depend on how my OCD was that day :lol:

Cheers
Mark

 

[Roughwear]

Have you flagged up the end result to John? I'm sure he would be interested.

 

[zoomer]

Good result! That sort of thing takes courage. I put a Willis & Geiger 90ies repro A2 through the washing machine and the dryer and it ended up in the garbage can.

Let me guess...you used soap? No, really, what happened?

I washed my 80s Willis (horsehide with the plasticcy hazelnut brown finish) several times and it came out fine.

 

[navvet]

I have done the washer/dryer routine on a cheap A-2 copy and it too fits tighter now without any damage. It would lead me to attempt it with a higher end jacket.

 

[dadgad]

What about the cotton lining, did you detect any anomaly shrinking after the treatment?

 

[Geir]

Good result! That sort of thing takes courage. I put a Willis & Geiger 90ies repro A2 through the washing machine and the dryer and it ended up in the garbage can.

Let me guess...you used soap? No, really, what happened?

I washed my 80s Willis (horsehide with the plasticcy hazelnut brown finish) several times and it came out fine.

Two things happened:
1. The lining shrunk more than the jacket. I'm not quite sure about the material, but it looked like satin so I think it would be rayon. I did not use soap or warm water.
2. The finish of the leather wore off in places like the collar and became very thin on the rest of the jacket. This would not be bad if it hadn't been for the leather turning black.
The end result was that the jacket became ugly and uncomfortable, so I threw it away.

 

[fishmeok]

The lining on the Goodwear still fits very well and doesn't seem overly baggy- I don't know if it shrank much, hard to tell.

The linings on those W&G jackets are friggin terrible. And the finish does wear down to black. I have two of them in my closet right now that I am keeping for practice jackets.

Cheers
Mark