Stretching things with weights is a bit caveman for some people, but it’s undoubtedly effective. It won’t help the stretching process but will make wearing your leather around a lot more pleasing. While not necessarily a tip, it’s also recommended that you employ this method when the weather gets colder. If the leather you’ve heated is too hot to touch, it’s obviously too hot to be putting on your body.įor more sensitive areas, wear a protective layer of clothes underneath them to try and prevent too much of the heat from transferring to your body. Just like in the last method, wear your leather around to help permanently stretch out the heated areas, flexing around them to speed things along.Īs mentioned earlier, be careful not to burn yourself when trying this method. Once the area has become soft and hot, turn off the hair dryer and put on the leather. Try to heat the area evenly for best results. Using something like a hairdryer, heating up specific areas of your clothing with concentrated air from about six or so inches away. You can use this to your advantage when trying to stretch your leather clothing so long as you’re careful about not burning yourself or your leather.
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Just like with your own skin, heating leather opens the pores of the hide that was used to make your favorite jacket.
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This method works best on smaller things like shoes or bags, but creative freezer arrangement and big enough bags make anything possible.Īdditionally, it does come with the risk of the first bag springing a leak and flooding your leather, so be sure everything is safe and secure before attempting this. You can even repeat the process several times if you like. The natural contraction and expansion that comes with freezing and thawing do the work of squishing and pulling your leather clothing better than your hands ever could. Once that’s done, simply let it thaw out. Placing the item flat, leave it in the freezer for several hours to freeze it completely. Place that bag inside a larger freezer bag, then fill the second bag with water before zipping it up. Place your leather item inside a secure zip-top plastic bag and seal it shut (for extra security, you can clip the end shut or even vacuum seal it). You can probably see where this is going, so the only real question remaining is how you’re meant to freeze your leather without completely ruining it. When water freezes it contracts, but ice thawing out expands. It’s also far less risky than completely submerging your leather garments completely in water, a process that serves to saturate the fibers for a similar effect but could potentially end up ruining your leather in the process.Īs an alternative, you can also do this process with a rag or cotton ball dipped in the alcohol solution and swabbed across the areas of the leather you wish to stretch if you lack a spray bottle. This method works by helping to soften the fibers that make up your leather, allowing them to flex more as they become less rigid. When sufficiently dampened, put on your leather garment of choice and wear it around.įor best results, try to flex the areas you’re wanting to stretch as you wear them to help speed up the process. The leather doesn’t have to be soaked, only moistened.
Simply combine one part rubbing alcohol with three parts water in a spray bottle, shake well, and spritz it over parts of the leather you wish to stretch (joint areas, for example). There’s a much more effective way to stretch your leather than just hoping for the best like that. No, this doesn’t mean getting drunk and letting whatever happens to happen.