Thursday, April 3, 2008

Denim Therapy

How to Care for Your Jeans

Get a little dirty—If you’ve bought a pair of stiff, dark raw-denim jeans, wear them for as long as possible between washes. The way you walk, sit, and the shape of your body will break them in, and the longer you go without laundering them, the more comfortable they will become. True denim connoisseurs will go for months—though they’re mostly men.

Keep them snug—Stretch jeans need to be washed more often. Most women’s jeans have two to four percent stretch and loosen up after a few hours of wear. If you like your jeans tight and wear them a lot, then you’ll need to wash them at least once a week to get them back to that original snug fit.

Be Protective—Always turn your jeans inside out when you wash them to protect the color. Use a regular liquid detergent and set the water temperature to no higher than warm. Allow raw denim or any jeans that you wear loose to air-dry. For stretch denim that needs to shrink back to size, tumble dry at high heat for about 40 minutes. Keep in mind that this drying cycle will eventually reduce the elasticity in the fabric, so if you’ve had them for a while, air-dry them most of the way and then give them a quick blast in a high-heat dryer for 10 to 15 minutes.

Hang Out—Once they’re dry, you can hang your jeans, which helps mimic they’re natural shape when worn. You can use a belt loop at the back of the waist-band to hang them. Also, you can fold them—and lots of people do—but that causes creases.

Patch things up—If you find a tiny hole in your favorite pair of jeans, don’t wait until it turns into a visible tear (unless that’s your look). Buy a heat transfer patch from a fabric store and iron it onto the underside of the tear to prevent further damage. I’d also suggest hand-washing the garment from there on out; a machine cycle may exacerbate the problem.

We hope this helps any denim debacles you may have and look forward to serving your denim desires!

Much Love,
The Pink Saloon Family