For starters, before you set out to shrink your wrangler jeans, you have to first of all, find out what material they are made out of. This would save you a lot of time, resources, and energy.
The wrangler denim brand makes use of a variety of materials in producing its jeans. Materials vary from polyester to spandex and these ones are not prone to much shrinkage.
That being said, I will share below the step-by-step guide on how you can carry on with the shrinking exercise once you have confirmed the jeans to be made with 100% cotton and not polyester or spandex.
Expert Steps To Shrinking Wrangler Jeans
Items needed for this procedure are basically a washing machine or a basin if you would be hand washing, hot water, and your jeans of course.
Step 1
Place your jeans in the washing machine. Do not attempt to wash them along with other materials.
Step 2
Add a little bit of a jean friendly detergent and set the machine to run on the hottest settings. What the hot water wash does is to have the jean fibers constrict and shrink thereby making it easy for you to have a significant level of shrink done on your jeans.
Step 3
Once jeans are dried, have them placed in the dryer and allow it to run on the highest settings too.
Step 4
When the drying cycle is completed, get it to run again for an added 5 – 10 minutes to heat them up some more. At the end of these steps, you would have been able to achieve a sizeable level of shrink.
Note: You should know though, that there is an even more effective way of shrinking your wrangler jeans and making them fit snugly. You can achieve this by simply boiling them. Let’s look at the steps involved in this procedure below:
Other effective ways to shrink wrangler jeans
Items needed include
- A big pot
- A tong
- A dryer & your jeans.
Step 1
Have a very big pot placed on the fire. The pot should be big enough to comfortably have the jeans submerged in water.
Step 2
Have clean water poured into the pot and leave to boil
Step 3
As soon as it begins to boil, put the jeans in, making sure that they are fully immersed in the water and have ample space to twirl around as the boiling water agitates.
Step 4
Leave the jeans in the water to boil for about 20 minutes.
Step 5
Once the time limit elapses, bring out the jeans carefully with the help of your tong and have them placed in the dryer.
Step 6
Set the dryer to run on the highest and hottest. Once it is completed, repeat the drying cycle, this time a little bit shorter to enable the jeans to dry completely.
The rate of the shrink you achieve using the boiling method is far higher than the regular one. So, if you want just a little bit of shrink, be sure to just follow the first method.
How much do wrangler jeans shrink?
The level of the shrink you would be able to achieve on your wrangler jeans totally depends on how well you strictly adhere to the washing instructions clearly written on its label.
The level of the accidental shrink you might experience on the jeans would not be more than a percent if you religiously follow them.
However, if you deliberately set out to get them shrunk, you can achieve a 3 – even 10% shrink depending on the method you adopt in the process.
Can I have my wrangler jeans shrink permanently?
This is going to be a tad bit difficult because the denim material has been so designed to stretch as you wear. As you know, the fabric is exposed to a lot of tension in our movements each time we put them on. The more tension the fabric faces, the more they stretch out.
This explains why we are likely to see stretched-out old jeans because they have served us years of wears and experienced too much strain.
The only way around getting your jeans to stay shrunk is to have them taken down to a professional tailor, who will have the jeans finely hemmed to size for good or, you have them constantly washed in hot water and dried under the hot settings too. See to it also, that you have them boiled periodically.
I must warn you though that this practice goes against the proper way of maintaining your denim and may have their lifespan cut short.
How to have the legs of my jeans shrink
A lot of us can relate to this problem. You get a pair of jeans and everything looks good, the fit is perfect on every area but, the legs.
You wish there is a way you can get the legs to fit better without having to go down to the tailors. I mean, of what good is a skinny jean with a somewhat baggy leg?
Well, luckily for you, I have just the way to get the legs of your skinny jeans to shrink down to size and fit better. Find them below:
Step 1
Get the biggest pot you have and pour in water. Place on the fire and leave it to boil.
Step 2
Once the water is fully boiled, have it emptied into a sink. But, just before you do, have a sink stopper in place to ensure that the water does not go down the drain.
Step 3
Now, just because the other areas are perfect and only the leg of the jeans needs to be shrunk, we will just have the leg area, placed in the sink full of hot water. Just the legs and not the entire body of the jean.
Step 4
Once the legs of the jeans are fully covered in the hot water, leave them to sit still in it for about half an hour. If it will be too much work for you to stay holding the body of the jean so they do not fall in, have they hanged over the sink counter so you can focus on other things while the legs soak.
Step 5
Once the time elapses, the water should be cool by now or warm at best. Have the sink stopper removed so the water drains off, get the legs squeezed and have them tossed into the dryer.
Step 6
As usual, we will be using the hottest drying cycle to get them dried but this time, the cycle should be very short as you do not want other areas affected by the shrink process. Get the jeans out while the legs are yet to dry completely.
Step 7
Flip jeans over to the other side and have them ironed. Remember, the only area you are to expose to the heat of the iron is the area of focus; the jean legs. Iron them continually using the hottest steam setting until you can confirm that they are dried perfectly.
It’s as simple as that. Completion of the seven steps below would guarantee that the legs of your jeans conform to your body and are snug perfectly, giving you that all-around fit look.
FAQ
How to get the perfect fit in jeans
Finding the right fit of jeans can be quite a challenge even if you are shopping physically. This is because you might like the style of a jean, try them on only to find out that it looks horrible on you. You might see a jean that has the perfect fit but then, you might not like the style or design.
It gets even worse when shopping for a brand of jeans you haven’t tried out before. You might seem lost as to how the sizes fit, if they run big or small. In this case, it is best to take recommendations from the sales attendant and also patiently try out jeans by jeans till you get the right one for you.
Yes, getting the right fit in jeans requires a great deal of patience. If you don’t have the time to go through jeans after jeans, you can opt to have them specially customized for you.
This would see you paying a little extra to have the tailors of the clothing company do a custom-made jean for you strictly according to your body measurement, sewn to how you want them to be.
How To Shrink Wrangler Jeans – Conclusion
Wrangler jeans are not preshrunk and as such, have a high tendency to shrink upon subsequent washes. You should absolutely bear that in mind anytime you go shopping so you do not end up making the terrible mistake of ordering for your exact size.
If you do, you are likely to have them further shrink down in size making it very tight and uncomfortable for you. The brand recommends you buy a size bigger so, you can have them fit back to size when they do shrink.