Club Obi Wan

I did not soak it long, I then put it in the dryer for a bit and when I took it out everything seemed fine EXCEPT the front along the zipper line seems crinkled and "puffy" in places? Every other place on the jacket is just fine, looks better in my opinion, but those places in the front really kinda bother me. Anyone have any advice with this or know if this is normal? Any help would be appreciated.

From my own experience a bit of puffiness is normal. Different bits if leather react differently to the water. Some bits go really grainy and some bits don't. It'll probably settle down after a while and a bit of leather conditioner will probably speed that up

It could also be the cotton facing of the zip didn't shrink the same as the leather.

I've seen that happen on jackets using this method on several occasions.

The zipper and its facing is now essentially longer than the leather after it shrank causing the waves and puffiness.

Regards! Michaelson

I'm thinking of doing the same thing to my jacket. Did the jacket shrink a lot?

I did the exact same thing to my G&B Expo lambskin a couple years ago. Stuck it in the shower on cold for about 30 minutes and then put it in the dryer for 10 minutes intervals until it was where I wanted it. I shrunk it from a 46 to about a big 44 or 45. Afterwards, I had the liner to deal with. Sleeve liner was way too long and the liner under the storm flap was balooning out. Also, as you experienced, the storm flap got wavy due to the shrinkage in relation to the non-shrinking zipper. I expected all this, so in the end I took it to a very experienced tailor that I use and they fixed the liner right up. The waviness in the storm flap took longer to work itself out, but gravity, humidity, and wear did ultimately solve that problem. One tip, try to wear it zipped up a little more often while you are working this out. I'm not sure about the physics, but this seemed to help work it out faster. I didn't use any kind of conditioner.

Twistedotter