The pleats are out of control!

Discuss all of the intricacies of the jacket in full detail

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Kokopelli
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The pleats are out of control!

Post by Kokopelli »

Pleats gone wild!!

I have not read about action pleat problems in the forum for some time now, so let’s bring it back!

This is the Wings Russet jacket, just a little over a year old. The day after I got it I wore it at Niagra Falls and it got soaked. The pleats opened up and flattened out and dried that way. I’ve since re-soaked it, tucked them back in and let it dry laying flat in place.
Subsequent wearing -not getting wet, and they’ve flayed out again. I think the problem may be a combination of the pleats being too ‘shallow’, combined with the leather being very soft and thin.
Is there a ‘fix’?


https://i.imgur.com/kNCwscN.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/EX0DkJv.jpg
Illinois_Jones
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Re: The pleats are out of control!

Post by Illinois_Jones »

Yeah, USW pleats tend to be too shallow, whereas Wested tend to be too deep. No perfect fix for it without going in through the liner and having someone install the elastic bands, but you *might* be able to get away with lubing the leather up with whatever your preferred conditioner is, tucking them back in and laying a cloth on top and then putting a weight on it (heavy books, whatever) and let it sit for about a week and retrain the leather some.

I did that on a USW steerhide that I have that had a funky sleeve wrinkling thing going on. It hadn't gotten wet and it wasn't a manufacturing error, it just wrinkled strangely for some reason and wasn't hanging properly. I greased it up, laid it flat and put an old pillowcase on it and a bunch of books and let it sit for a week. Been fine the past like 2 years.
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Kokopelli
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Re: The pleats are out of control!

Post by Kokopelli »

Illinois_Jones wrote:Yeah, USW pleats tend to be too shallow, whereas Wested tend to be too deep. No perfect fix for it without going in through the liner and having someone install the elastic bands, but you *might* be able to get away with lubing the leather up with whatever your preferred conditioner is, tucking them back in and laying a cloth on top and then putting a weight on it (heavy books, whatever) and let it sit for about a week and retrain the leather some.

I did that on a USW steerhide that I have that had a funky sleeve wrinkling thing going on. It hadn't gotten wet and it wasn't a manufacturing error, it just wrinkled strangely for some reason and wasn't hanging properly. I greased it up, laid it flat and put an old pillowcase on it and a bunch of books and let it sit for a week. Been fine the past like 2 years.
I'll try this with the Pecards.
noctisariel
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Re: The pleats are out of control!

Post by noctisariel »

Kokopelli, not sure if you ever found a solution to remedy this issue - but I recently installed an elastic like Illinois_Jones suggested and it really is the perfect fix to correct this common problem.

I recently made a post about it here: viewtopic.php?t=71506" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Kokopelli
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Re: The pleats are out of control!

Post by Kokopelli »

I haven’t messed with it yet, because I wear the jacket pretty much everyday. Whenever it warms up a little I plan to do something.
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Tibor
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Re: The pleats are out of control!

Post by Tibor »

That’s going to be tough to fix with such a narrow back panel. Elastic is probably the only option.
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