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Like a custom fit with your delicious denim duds? Unlike most modern commercially produced denim garments, a pair of Levi's 501 Original Shrink-to-Fit jeans doesn't come prewashed. By skipping this step, the manufacturer lets a girl shrink her jeans exactly the way she wants, so they fit more comfortably. There's no need to settle for an imperfect fit when you can break in your Levi's to the size, degree of softness and faded finish you like best.
Size Matters
Since the Shrink-to-Fit jeans will get smaller in the wash, a girl needs to buy them slightly larger than her actual size. For a tight fit with little room for washing error, one inch wider in the waist and three inches longer in the inseam should suffice. For a looser look, any waist size up to 36 inches needs an extra inch of shrinking room, while anything over 38 inches shrinks best with two or three extra inches. Inseam measurements under 34 inches need another three inches, while anything over that needs four.
Wash and Wear
The easiest, although most uncomfortable, way to get Levi's Shrink-to-Fit jeans to mold themselves to a girl's body is a decades-old method involving a tub of hot water. Wearing the jeans in the bathtub for their first half-hour-long washing just makes them wet, but walking around in them until they dry helps them shrink to the proper size. Once a girl has the size she wants, she can wash them as many times as needed until the color fades fashionably.
Machine Methods
Not everyone is into wearing wet jeans all day, especially since the indigo dye in denim can stain your skin. If you're OK with a fit that isn't precisely molded to your body, you can instead do the first jeans wash in a tub of hot water without other clothing. After half an hour, the jeans get drip-dried, then worn to see how well they fit. This method may take several washes until the jeans shrink to the necessary size.
Denim Delays
There are a few downsides to raw denim such as Levi's Shrink-to-Fit. Washing can cause streaking and spotting, as the starch that would normally get removed during the pre-washing process leeches out of the fabric. To avoid this, turn the denims inside out the first time they're washed in hot water. Other times, denim won't shrink as much as you were hoping, and your jeans come out too big. Boiling them in a pot of water and then running it through the dryer cycle can help tighten a pair that's way too big or baggy.
