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Stretching A-2 Knit Waistband

Hi All,
Not a frequent poster but longtime member and reader. Looking for some advice from the experienced collective here. I've owned a Diamond Dave A-2 repro I bought some years back and I love everything about it except that the knit waistband always seemed a little to tight / short in length. I don't mean that it's too small for me as the rest of the jacket is great, just that it seemed that the knit waist might have been too small in length for the circumference of the leather waist. When the jacket is unzipped the bottom edges pull apart and curl away to an extreme degree. Instead of a relatively straight line opening down the front of the jacket there is a noticeable curve. It's unlike any other A-2 waist I have ever had (and I have had Eastman, GoodWear, Real Mc'Coy NZ, Aero, Gibson and Barnes). I have long thought about perhaps having the knit replaced to relax the waist but I wondered if some sort of other solution might work. Drenching it and wearing it to stretch, or maybe some other technique. Looking forward to hearing if anyone has experience with something like this.

Regards
Marc
 

jeremiah

Well-Known Member
Welcome.
be careful. I’d much prefer a “tight” waist knit Over a loose “stretched out” one.
But if you are balls to the wall dead set on it, get the knit wet in warm to hot water and spread apart and put something on the ends of jacket to hold the tension then let air dry.

that said you have to understand how these jackets were intended to be worn.
look at any vintage jacket. When zipped and worn most would have some “blousing” effect.
the purpose of the knits was to trap warm air in and keep cooler air out. This served a purpose and was intentional. So there was no mistake in the making of your jacket in that regard.
 
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Thanks for the input. My hopes are to stretch it enough that it is still normally tight as most A-2's I own are but not unusually (dare I say uncomfortably) tight. As it is, the jacket overall fits me the way I like on most of my A-2's but the elastic pulls so tightly on the leather that I find I avoid wearing the jacket because of it. My thought is that I'll try and if it doesn't work I can still go the route of replacing.

Regards marc
 

mulceber

Moderator
Personally, I would just leave it as is. The blousing you describe sounds like it’s accurate to originals. If you do decide to go the hot water route, prepare yourself for the possibility that you’ll be looking for someone to replace the knits a few days later.
 

jeremiah

Well-Known Member
Nah. He’ll be fine with the hot water so long as he doesn’t put in dryer or in heated area to dry. All hot water really does with wool is make it felt but you have to agitate it for this to occur. It won’t shrink up the second warm to hot water touches it at all.
 

mulceber

Moderator
I dunno about that - after a hot water treatment the knits on my RW lost all their elasticity and I had to have them replaced.
 

jeremiah

Well-Known Member
@mulceber
I have a victory hide BK which I did plenty of HWT to and air dried in machine. Plenty of agitation. I abused the hell out it. Those knits are better than ever.

maybe you had bad material for your knits as with my ELC because it had nothing done to it in way of water. And no elasticity or shape left.

wool is wool though. You can use hot or cold water on it, shape it in form you want let slowly air dry. It will stay in that shape.

If anything HWT will make it more elastic.


he will be fine if he did what I said.
I know leather and I know wool. I have experimented plenty. If your knits got messed up with one HWT then you had crap material or you screwed up.
 

MikeyB-17

Well-Known Member
I may have a go at this, my old Avirex A-2 wouldn't be a bad jacket if the waist knit wasn't so tight-which personally I hate, I would much rather have a looser waist than a tight one which bunches up your back when the jacket is unzipped.
 
Thanks for all the responses. Given me some advice to ponder. Yeah, the knits on this jacket are the tightest and seemingly strongest I have owned. Seems like would hold up to almost anything. I'll post with results I go through with it.

Cheers
 
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