442RCT
New Member
After reading some of the advice contained therein this forum, I decided to experiment with one of my crap A-2 "styled" repro jackets. This jacket has no label, it's a thin lightweight moo hide that has been processed to look, 'pre-distressed', yet it creaks, squeaks and not at all soft or pliable...in other words it's a cheap jacket made with cheap stiff leather. I've tried softening this jacket with various conditioners, leather oil, and tumbling it with softballs in a dryer, none of it seemed to do much to work the leather into submission. My wife's cat will gleefully claw my ELC, but deems it beneath her station to bother unsheathing her claws on this tawdry leather jacket. The best feature about this jacket is that it has a one piece back for me to paint on and not worry if I've screw it up.
I'm guessing it's a size 'Medium', the body fits me fine, but the sleeves were meant for a knuckle dragger, they're about 2-3 inches too long. The cuffs disappear when I wear the jacket as the leather sleeves form a tube over them. I guess if I were built like a 145 pound chimp, the jacket would be a perfect fit.
I usually would take this jacket to a seamstress to adjust the sleeve length, but in this case, the tailoring bill would be more than what I paid for the jacket.
So after reading about warm water tailoring, I decided to give it a try. I would soak the sleeves in warm water, and tumble dry the jacket with a bunch of towels. And, voila, the sleeves would shrink to fit.
I'd put so many coats of leather conditioner and Obenauf's leather oil on the sleeves to anti-creak them, they were pretty much water proof. Water just ran off the leather, like a newly waxed car. I ended up using dish soap to break the surface tension and continued to run hot water on the sleeves until I felt the rayon lining become wet. After I pretty much soaked the leather, I placed the jacket with a bunch of towels in a dryer set at high. When I pulled the dried jacket out...the sleeves were still the same length as they were before. If anything came from tumble drying the jacket under high heat, it squeaks and creaks even worse than before, I guess the heat and the towels leached what oils and conditioners I'd lubed the jacket with before. I can re-lube the jacket again, (not with Obenauf's Leather Oil - it gave the jacket an unpleasant odor). I may or may not try 'washing' the whole jacket, or soak the sleeves for a longer period of time before drying the jacket.
I'm guessing it's a size 'Medium', the body fits me fine, but the sleeves were meant for a knuckle dragger, they're about 2-3 inches too long. The cuffs disappear when I wear the jacket as the leather sleeves form a tube over them. I guess if I were built like a 145 pound chimp, the jacket would be a perfect fit.
I usually would take this jacket to a seamstress to adjust the sleeve length, but in this case, the tailoring bill would be more than what I paid for the jacket.
So after reading about warm water tailoring, I decided to give it a try. I would soak the sleeves in warm water, and tumble dry the jacket with a bunch of towels. And, voila, the sleeves would shrink to fit.
I'd put so many coats of leather conditioner and Obenauf's leather oil on the sleeves to anti-creak them, they were pretty much water proof. Water just ran off the leather, like a newly waxed car. I ended up using dish soap to break the surface tension and continued to run hot water on the sleeves until I felt the rayon lining become wet. After I pretty much soaked the leather, I placed the jacket with a bunch of towels in a dryer set at high. When I pulled the dried jacket out...the sleeves were still the same length as they were before. If anything came from tumble drying the jacket under high heat, it squeaks and creaks even worse than before, I guess the heat and the towels leached what oils and conditioners I'd lubed the jacket with before. I can re-lube the jacket again, (not with Obenauf's Leather Oil - it gave the jacket an unpleasant odor). I may or may not try 'washing' the whole jacket, or soak the sleeves for a longer period of time before drying the jacket.
