A distressing tale of pre-distressing......

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Posted by Michigan Smith from spider-wg081.proxy.aol.com on September 18, 2000 at 10:20:59:

A long, long time ago, there was a big explosion that that created the universe. Particles gathered together and formed stars and planets. On one particular planet..........Oh, wait that would be the long version, I'll just cut the chase.

So there I was, minding my own business, when I decided I absolutely hate the way one side of the front of my LL Bean Goatskin A-2 keeps curling back and exposing the lining along the zipper. This would be the right side, without the storm flap. It has developed a wrinkle or crease about 1.5" from the zipper/edge. Actually, it had the wrinkle when I got it from my brother, as he outgrew it, and I swapped him something (can't recall what) for it.

It occurred to me, maybe if I soak the jacket in water, stretch it out, and let it dry that way, I could get the wrinkle out. I knew the jacket would be stiff after drying, but I could wear it and oil it to get it to soften up again. So, I put the jacket in the washing machine (yes, I know, it seemed like a good idea at the time). I ran it through a cycle with just hot water. I noticed when the water was pumping out, that alot of brown dye had come out of the leather. So I thought to myself, this could be cool, I can get the jacket to look a little older (as it had been wearing like nails and not showing much signs of aging, being about 8 years old). I ran it through a few more cycles with hot water, mind you each cycle was allowed to spin cycle the water out of the jacket. When I pulled it out, it looked OK. I stuffed it with as much newspaper as I could to stretch it out while drying, and laid it out on some towels.

A few days later, it was dry, and not too stiff. BUT.....it had turned light grey. A brown leather jacket, minus too much of its dye, is grey. This wasn't what I wanted. So I started on it with Lexol, thinking that may bring the darkness back. A tried it on a few areas, but the next day it still looked like crap. I proceeded to my next viable option, re-dying it. I purchased a bottle of brown liquid leather dye (I actually ended up using two full bottles). I tested it on an unseen area, and it looked good. I proceeded to re-dye the entire jacket.

Here's where things when bad the second time. I had used the Lexol on both the sleeves, as they looked worst intially, but I wasn't satisfied even after the treatment. Unfortunately, enough Lexol was still in/on the leather when I re-dyed it to prevent the dye from penetrating evenly. I should have run it through the water treatment a few times to get the Lexol out/off before dying it.

So now I've got a very uneveny colored jacket. I decided back into the washer to see if I can get the dye I just put on out. It took about 6 trips through the hot water and spin cycle, and the new dye held much faster than what the jacket was originally done in. I pulled it out, stuffed it again, and let it dry.

After it was dry, I dyed it again with the liquid dye. When the dye was dry, it looked much better this time. I then Lexoled it completely and looked better yet. The leather is now shaded in similar, yet slightly uneven shades of brown, and looks very much like a distressed or patina finish. It required a coat of Lexol and 2 of Neatsfoots Oil. I think to keep it looking really good, I will have to oil it regularly now to maintain it. Some of the seams got some distressing to them also from the spin cycles. The down side is, too many trips through the spin cycle tore up the seams on nylon lining. A local tailor was able to re-stitch them for about $15.

Overall, it was far more time consuming and costly than I ever intended. As I stated, I started just trying to get the the damn front of the thing to stop curling back, and it still does that. I ended up with a nice looking finish on the jacket, but I am in NO MEANS RECOMMENDING THE ABOVE DESCRIBED PROCESS.

If anyone does know of a way to get the front of my A-2 to lay flat, please let me know. I am well aware that this whole thing sounds rather boneheaded, so please be kind on the follow-up posts. Keep in mind, everything worked out in the end.


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