OK, bit of an odd one this. I have a pair of trousers (or pants, if you must) which fit perfectly, and I like them, except that the fabric is too stiff, so it doesn’t so much hang as kind of, well, stand there. It’s a kind of light canvas fabric, and I assumed it would soften up after a few washes, but it hasn’t really.
Is there anything I can do to make the fabric less stiff, without damaging my trousers?
Must… supress… urge to make juvenile joke involving ‘trousers’ and ‘stiffness’…
What exactly are they made of? Check the tag and let us know. I loaf around the house in stiff jeans as much as possible to soften them up.
Also, in my experience, washing perfectly good clothing in British washing machines/water has made them kind of rough.
They’re 100% cotton. They’re Levi’s, but not exactly jeans, kind of a cross between jeans and cargo pants I suppose. As I said, it’s kind of like a lightweight canvas material. Fabric softener doesn’t want to know.
I have pants like this too (and yes, I must call them pants). I think they are Docker khakis. I have had them for atleast 2 years and they are still very stiff. I would have to assume that they are mostly cotton. They also come out of the dryer very wrinkly and don’t unwrinkle easily because of their stiffness. I wonder if there are any old homespun remedies for this? All I know is that, like the OP said, washing numerous times doesn’t seem to help.
When my trousers get too stiff, I try to think about baseball.
You’re a better person than I.
If you have hard water, cloth might get more stiff from washing.
Don’t wash, but chuck them in the dryer on “air dry” or “no heat” setting with a few pairs of athletic shoes. A few hours of this will beat those pants out of their stiffness.
Back in the day, when I was the premier fish filleter in Cortez, Florida, we used to drag our jeans behind a powerboat to break them in.
Use fabric softener, and then tumble-dry them with a sheet of Bounce.
Didn’t Levis Straus stone wash their jeans to make them look old and softten them up.
A few launderings in real hot water and lots of chlorine bleach might do the job.
Roll them around in a big barrell of stones, hot water, detergent & bleach.