Shrinking USW Vintage Cow with hot water

fletchshaw · Post by **fletchshaw** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 10:44 am

Hey everyone-

I shrank my USW goat by soaking it in a tub of hot water for a hour and it worked great.

I want to do the same thing with my Vintage Cow but I'm not sure what the effect will be on the leather. I've looked through the boards and haven't found an answer to this particular question.

Thanks!

jacksdad · Post by **jacksdad** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 12:51 pm

are you looking for a look or is the jacket too big. My advice is if it's too big return it. You do not want to make a $400.00 error. that's my two cents good luck.

fletchshaw · Post by **fletchshaw** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 1:39 pm

Can't return it. It was one of the sale jackets from last year.

I just need to shrink it a little bit. Too big in the shoulders.

Post by **Ken** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 1:47 pm

How much would say it shrank by? A whole size?

Ken

Michigan Smith · Post by **Michigan Smith** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 6:23 pm

I put a goatskin A2 type jacket in hot water (just shy of boiling) once. Very, very, very, extremely, incredibly, bad, bad idea. Ruined the jacket, leather did not shrink evenly, changed color. Did the same thing to a leather belt, also ruined. Conversely, I regularly soak leather jackets in COLD water, in the washing machine, and let them "spin cycle" wring out, then hand roll wring them out with towels, then lay them out flat on towels to dry. This does not shrink them, at least any I've done, but does allow one to smooth out any unwanted or unsightly creases or folds. It can also cause unwanted folds/creases if you're now carefull to lay them out flat and smooth enough, especially on the "down" side. It is also a good way to get collars shaped.

davyjones007 · Post by **davyjones007** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 3:22 pm

there is a whole tutorial about this, with pics, on vlj (vintageleatherjacket.org) by a fellow named John Chapman who makes A-2's. his company is Goodwear jackets. he does it to help the fit and aging process of jackets. there a few posts around here of people doing the same things to their jackets to get the arms or body slimmer and sometimes to get more sleeve length. most of the jackets i have seen people do this with have been hh or goat, so i am not sure what kind of results you will get with cow. MS- what happened to your goat A-2? I used "the hot water method" on my USA goat A-2 to get a slightly aged and wider jacket and to help pull the pockets down a bit and I had good results.