Just got a new pair of jeans, but they're super stiff? You could wear them in for a few months... Or you can take this nifty little shortcut =]

I should probably point out that this Instructable is not typical in a number of ways. First off, if you have a pair of jeans you need to "break in", by no means do you have to do all these steps. However, I would highly recommend you do the first step before anything else. All the others are up to you. Also, materials are listed individually at each step. Best of all, chances are you already have everything you need at home!

I have a few Thank-You notes I'd like to hang out. These guys gave me loads of help on my forum topic. Thanks guys!
- RocketScientist2015
- NachoMahma
- LinuxH4x0r
- tech-king
- Goodhart
- Firebert010
- Brennn10

*DISCLAIMER:* I'm NOT responsible for anything you do to your pants OR yourself while performing any actions described in this Instructable. Exercise caution. Irons are hot, it can burn you. Chemicals burn, don't get them in your eyes, mouth, or skin. BE CAREFUL!

Step 1: Iron

  • A clean pair of jeans
  • Iron & ironing board/surface
  • Starch

There are a few things we should do to prep the jeans before we start. First off, you should start with your jeans being nice and clean. Second, you'll want to make sure they're nice and straight; they'll be easier to work with that way.

My jeans were already washed, but due to the fact that they've been sitting on my desk in a heap for a week, I decided to iron 'em flat. I had to use a pretty little industrial version of starch on them. When you're done ironing, turn the jeans inside-out and roll them up.
<p>Hair conditioner!! I had tried a vinegar soak method suggested elsewhere but that hadn't caused any change (these jeans were hard as a plank). The hair conditioner suggestion was so obvious and made so much sense that I just had to try it immediately (also, I'm far to lazy to sandpaper or roll them up and beat them or run over them with the car etc). Didn't iron the jeans first, just rubbed the wet jeans with a generous amount of hair conditioner (both inside and out), left it wet for 24 hours then washed (no detergent but lots of fabric softener) and voila - they are baby soft. Great fix!</p>
hey.<br><br>Lost here. maybe I'm missing something, but nothing in this thread will soften jeans or any fabric. So why all the US whoopy high-fives? <br>Sad. I came here looking for an answer or two, and got nothing. And my jeans are stiff as hell, and I'm none the wiser as to how to make them softer. Can you stop with the whoopy replies, and let the useful advice take centre stage? Thanks.<br><br>Pro NachoMahma - you're just taking up space and wasting time with your, &quot;Great job!&quot; posts. Go away unless you have something useful to add about softening stiff jeans.<br><br>Does anyone know how to soften stiff jeans? --- without the whoopy stuff and useless posts? Stop bothering good, inquisitive posts, whoopy people. You are just annoying. Just the facts, please.<br><br>If you have nothing to say about how to soften stiff jeans, then say nothing. Shutup. Be quiet. Your whoopees are useless timewasters. Go watch a soap on tele. <br><br><br>
AWESOME, thank you for this article!! I've been soaking my jeans in fabric softener, washing them, and repeating for a few days now. I knew there must be other things to try besides just stretching, soaking, and beating the crap out of them. I never thought of sandpaper or shampoo/conditioner-- brilliant!
If you deal with dying/treatment of hair, you'll quickly realize that shampoo strips/destroys hair a lot more than conditioner, which usually has more ingredients aimed towards *conditioning* and revitalising hair.<br/><br/>Shampoo would seem to be your best bet here.<br/>
Conditioner softens your hair; this is the goal here. Or are you saying that shampoo would "break it down" and break in the fabric?
Exactly. Shampoo is more destructive, conditioner is good for softening & revitalising, but hair is different than denim fiber. Not sure it'd work quite the same, but the ingredients in shampoo would still act the same. IE: cleaning, stripping, & breaking down the components of what it's being rubbed into. That hippy "green" shampoo crap isn't going to do as good of a job as your $1.79/bottle Suave/store-brand shampoos are, though.
Conditioner is better, it goes on last and makes dee hair silky and smoooth
Cool, if I get a new pair of jeans, this will be helpful. >.O
Coming from the guy who didn't want to wear them in manually.
weissensteinburg = pingas<br/>
(I've been wearing them like this for months...)
Hey mate, this is a great instructable. Never thought I would come across something on a topic like this that would keep my attention through the whole instructable! Very nice!
Haha, awesome! +1 rating.
Great job! (what did I do?)
Haha! Great 'Ible!!<br/><br/>Thanks for the quote =D<br/><br/>I'm definitely using this on the jeans I'm wearing now - they're dreadful! Very well done and humorous to boot!<br/><br/>+1 and Faved!<br/>
<sup>D'oh!</sup><br/><strong>D'oh!</strong><br/><h2>D'oh!</h2><br/>Nice job, I should have said beat jeans with a <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.instructables.com/id/Soul-of-the-Sword/">boffer sword</a>.<br/>
You could probably stretch them out much more effectivly if you had some muskles behind those arms :/
. Great job!

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