Stretching Cowhide Leather

[MrProper]

80 or 90% of losing weight is diet. Cut out sugar, bread and cut alcohol and you will lose weight. A jog will only burn about 400 kcal, which is one desert. Good for heart, though.

that depends on your pace/pulse. With the appropriate effort, you consume more.

 

[Gabri]

Doesn't sound like much. but those 400-500 calories will definitely help losing 2-3 kg in 1-2 months or not?

so that it doesn't become so off-topic

I think many leather jackets are not tailored well

There are leather jackets where you can have an athletic upper body .... But you have to have legs and hips like a toothpick to be able to close the jacket

you practically need a body like a cartoon character.
I mean, a tailor has to assume that if someone needs an XL, XXL jacket, then this person will definitely not be super slim on the legs, waist, and hips. It doesn't necessarily have to be fat, it could be that someone is totally muscular and also regularly trains his lower body.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Doesn't sound like much. but those 400-500 calories will definitely help losing 2-3 kg in 1-2 months or not?

so that it doesn't become so off-topic

I think many leather jackets are not tailored well

There are leather jackets where you can have an athletic upper body .... But you have to have legs and hips like a toothpick to be able to close the jacket

you practically need a body like a cartoon character.
I mean, a tailor has to assume that if someone needs an XL, XXL jacket, then this person will definitely not be super slim on the legs, waist, and hips. It doesn't necessarily have to be fat, it could be that someone is totally muscular and also regularly trains his lower body.

Ah... the question of sizing . Best tailors or makers never use XL or L as labels but stick to more useful sizing 40, 42, etc.

But the big lesson to learn is that you should go by the measurements of a jacket, never the labeled size. For example - I need 23 inches as a pit to pit size (chest measured across under the armpits) - this could be a size 38, a 40, a 42 or a 44 dependent on the pattern or maker. So it is important to work this out.

Good leather jacket makers size their jackets proportionately even if the sizes vary. Bad makers of any type of garment get proportions wrong.

Today the most obvious problem with off the rack garments from mainstream stores is that they are often over-sized to match the over-sized bodies of people who eat modern fatty foods. I tried on a mid naughties Wilson's jacket in size Small (this should be a 36 or 38) it fit like a 46 or XXL. Bloody crazy that I at six ft two and 185 pounds can wear a small in any maker's brand.

 

[Gabri]

for me its the same

S (38) / M (40) / L (42) / XL (44) / XXL (46)

I often look at the size charts of jacket makers and sometimes I find it absurd if the chest e.g. 60cm and waist / bottom around 50cm. that's 10cm difference, you really have to look like a cartoon character or like this guy here.
So, you must go a size up to get more space for bottom/waist, but the chest/Shouldes etc. does not fit anymore...

 

[Seb Lucas]

for me its the same

S (38) / M (40) / L (42) / XL (44) / XXL (46)

I often look at the size charts of jacket makers and sometimes I find it absurd if the chest e.g. 60cm and waist / bottom around 50cm. that's 10cm difference, you really have to look like a cartoon character or like this guy here.
So, you must go a size up to get more space for bottom/waist, but the chest/Shouldes etc. does not fit anymore...

Maybe, however everyone's different - my chest is 41 inches and my waist is 32 inches, which is 9 inches or 23 cm difference. I have never exercised and I am in my fifties.

 

[MrProper]

and sometimes I find it absurd if the chest e.g. 60cm and waist / bottom around 50cm. that's 10cm difference, you really have to look like a cartoon character or like this guy here.

Sh*t I‘m looking like a cartoon character ;-)
My sizes are around 60/50

 

[Carlos840]

for me its the same

S (38) / M (40) / L (42) / XL (44) / XXL (46)

I often look at the size charts of jacket makers and sometimes I find it absurd if the chest e.g. 60cm and waist / bottom around 50cm. that's 10cm difference, you really have to look like a cartoon character or like this guy here.
So, you must go a size up to get more space for bottom/waist, but the chest/Shouldes etc. does not fit anymore...

I'm 41" (104cm) chest, 33" waist (84cm), that's 8" (20cm) drop....
Clothes are never V shaped enough for me.

 

[Gabri]

haha

Buzz Lightyear

 

[Gabri]

you can be glad guys that you have such v-shape bodies.
many will probably only have a brick body or an reverse V-Shape

 

[Pio]

IMO a leather jacket won't stretch.
If they did @dudewuttheheck would not be wearing a very nice new SanMateo, i would.

of course it stretches, everyone knows that.

 

[Seb Lucas]

of course it stretches, everyone knows that.

Well, I'm everyone and I do not know that. In fact I disagree. Having owned around 60 leather jackets over 30 years in many hides and having made many experiments, I have never found a jacket to stretch, except temporarily. They return to the normal size because leather is a bit like an elastic band - what is pulled out must go back in. Of course some jackets loosen up and fit better in time. But that's something different.

 

[Pio]

Well, I'm everyone and I do not know that. In fact I disagree. Having owned around 60 leather jackets over 30 years in many hides and having made many experiments, I have never found a jacket to stretch, except temporarily. They return to the normal size because leather is a bit like an elastic band - what is pulled out must go back in. Of course some jackets loosen up and fit better in time. But that's something different.

I've stretched my Real McCoys J-100 and it didn't go back to its original size. I've also done the opposite and shrunk several jackets including Aero's in Chromexcel and Schott's on Chrome tan leather. Leather goods can be stretched in general. Given you have owned so many jackets it surprises me you don't know these things. Leather stretches and is shrinks as well. Its a fact.

 

[Seb Lucas]

I've stretched my Real McCoys J-100 and it didn't go back to its original size. I've also done the opposite and shrunk several jackets including Aero's in Chromexcel and Schott's on Chrome tan leather. Leather goods can be stretched in general. Given you have owned so many jackets it surprises me you don't know this things. Leather stretches and is shrinks as well. Its a fact.

Don't say something like "It's a fact" - I have yet to see evidence and this just makes you sound smug. Also phrases like "everybody knows" - are not helpful their, friend. I have not had that experience and I have tried to stretch at least 5 or 6 jackets. So what we have are two people with two different sets of experience. Facts aside.

 

[Carlos840]

of course it stretches, everyone knows that.

Argumentum ad populum is a strong opener...

 

[Pio]

You haven't done it the right way then. But it does stretch.

 

[Entropic Thunder]

I've stretched my Real McCoys J-100 and it didn't go back to its original size. I've also done the opposite and shrunk several jackets including Aero's in Chromexcel and Schott's on Chrome tan leather. Leather goods can be stretched in general. Given you have owned so many jackets it surprises me you don't know these things. Leather stretches and is shrinks as well. Its a fact.

Agreed. Although as I said earlier it’s all dependent on the type of leather, many are preshrunken during the tanning process to tighten the grain structure and produce a denser more fibrous leather. These types of leather will usually stretch somewhat or even a lot, but will not shrink. Other leathers are the opposite and will shrink but not stretch. Some will do both, some will do neither. The key to finding out is just to go balls to the wall, soak the jacket completely through and follow through. Just spritzing some water on and wearing with a thick sweatshirt won’t do a hell of a lot, but sopping wet and flexing with all your might will probably get you an inch in any dimension, if no seams fail first.

 

[Seb Lucas]

I used to think that jackets stretched at one point but what I have observed is leather loosening up. I guess you could call it stretching by one definition. And I have called it that, but I think I used the word wrongly.

I suspect that a brand new jacket can sometimes loosen up and seem to gain a centimetre of sizing, just through the leather softening. If people want to call that stretching, ok. But if you wish to make a jacket longer in the arms by an inch say, I have not seen that work permanently although many have tried. In some cases I have tried to make sleeves and collars longer and chest wider by stretching. They do expand and then they retract. That's been my experience. I've had to move on several jackets that simply could not be stretched to fit me, no matter how much I liked them.

 

[zebedee]

I used to think that jackets stretched at one point but what I have observed is leather loosening up. I guess you could call it stretching by one definition. And I have called it that, but I think I used the word wrongly.

I suspect that a brand new jacket can sometimes loosen up and seem to gain a centimetre of sizing, just through the leather softening. If people want to call that stretching, ok. But if you wish to make a jacket longer in the arms by an inch say, I have not seen that work permanently although many have tried. In some cases I have tried to make sleeves and collars longer and chest wider by stretching. They do expand and then they retract. That's been my experience. I've had to move on several jackets that simply could not be stretched to fit me, no matter how much I liked them.

I think that stretching occurs forcibly - I haven't really noticed leather 'naturally' stretching with wear, although the creasing up makes it appear that arms are shorter, but they're not if you measure them flat. I've seen leather tighten as it dries out. The only stretching I've heard of involves hanging weights on wet leather or packing wet sleeves with newspaper or cans. I reckon that stitching loosens up more regularly than leather stretches.

 

[navetsea]

most of the time what hold you back from stretching the jacket is the lining. if the lining is sagging or unlined and you drench the jacket, it will stretch. if the lining is quilted or thick or dense stable fabrics and cut flatly without any sag or slack, then the jacket can't stretch, not because the leather doesn't stretch.

 

[Seb Lucas]

I think that stretching occurs forcibly - I haven't really noticed leather 'naturally' stretching with wear, although the creasing up makes it appear that arms are shorter, but they're not if you measure them flat. I've seen leather tighten as it dries out. The only stretching I've heard of involves hanging weights on wet leather or packing wet sleeves with newspaper or cans. I reckon that stitching loosens up more regularly than leather stretches.

I've soaked jackets in water and used weights and fillers to stretch areas. These areas expanded. And gradually they returned to their former size.