Help me get accidental crease out or vintage leather and denim jackets.

April 17, 2006 6:37 AM

I have some vintage clothes with permanent accidental creases in unwanted places. I was wondering how to remove them. One on a leather jacket and one is on a denim shirt.

One of pocket covers on the breast pocket on a leather jacket has folded at the edge. So now, the flap is covering the pocket except for the right side which is sticking straight out.

On the denim shirt the hem on the rear tail is rolled up like a burrito.

I have tried reversing the fold and ironing and I have also tried reversing the fold and putting a heavy weight on it overnight (leather jacket). Nothing is working. Any ideas?

posted by lukeomalley to clothing, beauty, & fashion (3 comments total)

For the denim shirt, launder once, then try a clothes steamer. That usually does the job for me.
On the leather, I suggest you take it to a professional leather shop.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:52 AM on April 17, 2006

I have a denim skirt which kept doing the same thing. Wetting it and ironing it always worked, but I just wanted a wash and wear skirt, not something that I had to iron every single time I wanted to wear it. I ended up supergluing a bunch of buttons to the inside of the hem. It seems hardly any weight at all, but apparently it's enough to keep the hem from rolling up every time I wash the skirt. So you could try weighing the hem down slightly with something sewn or glued to the inside. My skirt was midcalf length, so I wasn't actually sitting on the buttons, but if your shirt hits your butt when you sit down you might want to consider using something cushioned or padded to weigh it down, should you try it.

If it's possible, considering the construction of the jacket, you might think about sewing or gluing a magnet on the inside of the pocket, and then sewing another one in between the layers of the flap right where the curled part is. The curled part would then uncurl and smooth itself to the pocket. You could do this permanently if it looked ok, or you could do it temporarily until the curl came out. Dampening the curled part of the leather slightly (and I do mean slightly) before attaching the magnets would help.

I like gluing things to my clothes, apparently.
posted by iconomy at 7:23 AM on April 17, 2006

thanks for the help. I will try them both.
posted by lukeomalley at 2:35 PM on April 17, 2006