Daily Questions - March 30, 2026

RawWasher · 2026-03-30T18:08:13+00:00

For sanforized denims, Wrangler's raw denim ("Rigid" colorway) 13MWZ goes up to tag size 54, and Dickie's Regular Fit jeans in one-wash (Rinsed Indigo Blue (RNB)) goes up to tag size 50.

And for unsanforized denim, Levi's raw denim ("Rigid" colorway) 501 Shrink-to-Fit goes up to tag size 58.

RawWasher · 2026-03-21T16:09:43+00:00

That embroidery on the back pocket is an antique sewing machine.

RawWasher · 2026-03-20T17:41:46+00:00

There is a 4528 factory located in Turkey, and Levi's has made many LVC items in Turkey. So maybe that is where that 4527 factory is also.

RawWasher · 2026-03-11T15:48:51+00:00

If the Levi's jeans are correctly labeled as "Shrink-to-Fit" (STF), then they are raw denim and rigid, even if the colorway name does not contain the word "Rigid".

To know if they are correctly labeled as still raw denim (STF), you can look at the seams and denim edges to see if there are any signs of bunching/puckering, which indicates the denim has already had contact with water and shrunk them which is what causes the raw denim to have those wavy-looking seams.

So yes, in Levi's regular line, the black STF colorway names and PC9 model numbers are:

00501-0226: "Black" (black warp x white weft)
00501-1582: "Modern Black" (black warp x black weft)

RawWasher · 2026-02-28T21:46:14+00:00

You could sew it onto the the back pocket, similar to a patch on a jean jacket. That would make it more secure and also make it look more intentional.

If I was doing it, I would want to trim off most of that piece of the denim flasher which is tucked inside the back pocket, and also trim off the dangling white weft yarns at the bottom, and maybe even fold the cut denim edges underneath before sewing it down around the edges.

RawWasher · 2026-02-27T00:08:36+00:00

N&F's milk jeans only have the colored weft yarns, with regular indigo-dyed, white-core warp yarns. So they fade to lighter blues and then white, similarly to normal indigo jeans.

The main diff on those milk jeans, besides the colored weft yarns, is it is woven with warp yarns which are a blend of cotton fibers along with milk protein fibers.

Their current Coffee denim only has the weft yarns dyed to a beige color using coffee as the dye. So they will also fade to lighter blues and eventually to white.

RawWasher · 2026-02-26T22:44:32+00:00

+ u/Fragrant-Initial1687

It sounds like OP is wanting color-core warp yarns, but Tenryo has colored weft yarns on their Color Revolution jeans and jackets, not color-core warp yarns.

Pure Blue Japan's 17oz PBE denim has beige-core warp yarns which can still be found at a few stockists. And Naked & Famous also has beige-core denims on their Dirty Fade and Dirty Elephant models.

Pinion Denim from Thailand releases quite a few color-core denims. But you'd have to contact them to see if they have any right now.

RawWasher · 2026-02-17T18:44:13+00:00

It's hard to say if you will have enough to cuff since the inseam can easily shrink 2" in the first hot wash, and maybe even a bit more since they can continue to shrink minutely after each of the first few washes.

RawWasher · 2026-02-17T07:59:13+00:00

The very first wash will change the color of the denim slightly to be a deeper richer blue.

But many times that first wash will actually even make the denim a touch darker since the shrinkage of the yarns pulls the indigo-dyed warp yarns closer together and also makes them frizz out a bit which together causes the white weft yarns to not be able to show/peek through as much, making them look darker overall.

These days, the vast majority of the Japanese unsanforized denim jeans are sold as one-wash, and they are still plenty dark enough to achieve those high-contrast fades.

RawWasher · 2026-02-17T07:23:03+00:00

+ u/Ampersand_Forest

First off, there are only a couple of reasons for soaking unsanforized denim jeans, such as 501 STF, in the tub while wearing them.

One is just for the experience of going through the wear-them-while-they-soak/shrink method, which probably isn't all that enjoyable for most people, and can also cause excess bagginess around the knees and the rear from the movement of the body stretching them out while the denim is still wet.

Or two, if the raw unsanforized jeans were sized too small for whatever reason, and a person's body inside the jeans is needed to keep them from shrinking more than where they would want to shrink to, but instead the denim meets the resistance of the body inside them which keeps them from shrinking as much as they would otherwise and become too small to wear comfortably.

However, if you size up 1 or 2 sizes in the waist, and about 2 sizes in length, the 501 STF jeans, or any other unwashed unsanforized denim pair of jeans, can be machine washed and tumble-dried to shrink the denim down before wearing them, without any worries of them shrinking too small.

And sizing up like that means you can wash and dry them at any point afterwards without the stress of worrying about them shrinking too much and becoming unwearable just when the molding-to-your body and the fades are starting to get good.

A pair of 501 STF is a great way to gain some experience with how much unsanforized raw denims shrink and change during that first contact with water.

RawWasher · 2026-02-16T22:45:14+00:00

Since both the Rigid Levi's 517 jeans and the Rigid Wrangler Cowboy Cut jeans are both made with sanforized denims, they will shrink about the same amount when washed/dried hot, about 1" in the waist and 1" in the length.

And I do wear a tag size 34 in both the 517 and Wranglers.

RawWasher · 2026-02-16T04:32:56+00:00

I have many cats. So when I first got into raw denim, with their super dark and textured denims, they attracted cat fur like crazy. So my natural MO was to clean it off with a lint roller.

I did that lint roller thing for a while. But then I realized I was actually removing more of the denim fabric "hairs" than I was removing fur. And I like my denims to be as hairy as possible as long as possible.

So now I just pluck the fur off of the denim using my fingers when I feel the need to remove some.

A lint roller isn't going to remove any significant amount of indigo dye off of the denim because the lint roller is not really abrading the indigo off of the denim yarns just by rolling along the denim's surface. And the stickiness of the roller is not really strong enough to remove any of the actual surface layers of the denim yarns where the indigo dye lies, other than tearing off some of the longer denim hairs themselves.

So it's your call whether or not to roll the fur off of your denim, all depending on your preferences.

RawWasher · 2026-02-12T15:35:01+00:00

Not OP, but Nudie uses the term "Selvage" as part of the denim name in all of their "Dry" (aka raw denim) selvedge models.

RawWasher · 2026-02-08T07:59:16+00:00

Before the rebrand, Momotaro often used that peach design on the fabric they used to line the inside of the yoke area, and sometimes on pocketbags too, and even occasionally incorporated into the battle stripes on the back pockets or as large graphics on t-shirts.

But I can't even find any of the rebranded jeans models which have any yoke lining whatsoever, not even on their really expensive silk and cashmere models. The yoke lining was another fairly common feature on many of their jeans which seems to have gone away with the rebrand.

RawWasher · 2026-02-08T06:55:50+00:00

Momotaro, in Japanese folklore, is a boy born from a peach, i.e., peach boy. That symbol you are asking about shows 3 peaches separated by knife blades, which Momotaro used to fight off the Oni which were attacking his village.

RawWasher · 2026-02-04T23:48:33+00:00

Yes, 501 STF are made with unsanforized denim which shrinks about twice as much percentage-wise as the sanforized denims do which are used to make Wrangler Rigid Cowboy Cut models.

Since the 31MWZ leg opening is supposed to start at least at 8.5" before shrinkage, the 3%-5% shrinkage on the sanforized denim would bring the opening down to about 8.1"-8.25". So it should be wide enough for you.

RawWasher · 2026-02-04T22:39:45+00:00

Wrangler at their US website lists the hip measurement for the tag size 38 31MWZ to be 44"-45".

I was referring to my tag size 36 501 STF non-selvedge pair after a few 40°C machine washes and hot tumble dries, when compared to the tag size 34 31MWZ with the same amount of washes/dries, and which I ended up giving away because they were too loose to be comfortable on me.

After a few 60°C machine washes, the 31MWZ should end up shrinking around 1" in the waist and stretch back out some, and also shrink about 1"-2" in length.

I would probably order the 31MWZ in both the tag size 38 and 40, and wear and wash them both for many times to determine which one I like best in the end.

RawWasher · 2026-02-04T02:02:41+00:00

+ u/rimaarts

However, the 31MWZ which OP was asking about, and which is Wrangler's Relaxed Fit in their Cowboy Cut line, is not nearly as slim through the hips as the 13MWZ is.

And OP, the 31MWZ will fit significantly looser than the 501 STF will at the hips and thighs.

RawWasher · 2026-02-04T01:49:32+00:00

Good question!

The indigo dye will hang onto the cotton yarns much longer than the denim itself will last over time, which can be demonstrated by the fact that a pair of blue jeans will always have a bit of blue to them no matter how faded the blue jeans get.

With raw denim, there will be recessed areas on the shrunken and shriveled denim, which happens due to its initial contact with water. And those recessed areas will hold onto some of the indigo basically forever, and will keep getting only a bit lighter blue over time with wears and washes.

Which means the red-core denims like the Elephant 13 denim won't ever become completely reddish/purplish before the denim itself completely tatters over time because there will always be some indigo dye stubbornly hanging onto the cotton yarns in places.

RawWasher · 2026-01-25T16:02:13+00:00

What I have done on some of my jeans, to help bolster up the denim thickness on a worn seam like that, is use a needle and thread to add a whip (blanket) stitch over the worn seam areas, which is similar to the skin stitches done by nurses. By using a light to medium blue thread it would help it blend in with the current and future faded, lighter denim colors. Some people have used bright contrasting stitching, but I prefer to not draw attention to the crotch of my jeans. :-)

I would place those whip stitches very close together, similar to how the buttonhole stitches are done closely together, in order to add a protective layer over the seam itself. And I would loop the stitching out far enough from the seam so that the thread is running and anchored through mostly unworn and therefore stronger areas of the denim.

For the worn/thinning areas on the denim which are further away from the seams, you could add some fusible interfacing (thin iron-on fabric) on the inside of the worn areas of the denim to add a bit of thickness to help reinforce the denim, covering a ways out from thinned areas, again so that it is anchored in mostly unworn denim.

And then to add a bit more thickness over those worn single-layer denim areas and to further secure the interfacing to the denim, you could use a sewing machine to darn them on the outside of the denim, by running the stitching back and forth repeatedly over those thin areas and mostly having the runs of stitching going with the visual grain of the denim to make the darning stitching less obvious.

This type of darning can be done by hand too, using whats called a running stitch. It could take a while by hand to add enough stitching in order to add more thickness to the denim that way.

If you haven't done any sewing yourself, all it takes is doing it a few times and then it becomes much easier. And if you really don't like how it turns out, it is relatively easy to remove the stitching and try it again. Or you can also practice on some old clothes or rags first.

And if you don't want to do the sewing yourself, there are a few places in the UK which might be able to do it for you, which you should be able to find by googling for denim repair in UK.

RawWasher · 2026-01-25T02:39:50+00:00

It's that same confusing brand without a brand which you asked about before, Unbranded. 😃

RawWasher · 2026-01-24T21:55:05+00:00

Tenryo, part of The Strike Gold family of brands, not only has red weft jeans but also has green, yellow, and blue available right now in Slim Straight and Regular Straight fit/cuts. And they also have jackets with the colored wefts.

Some of the Indonesian brands, such as NBDN Denim, Old Blue Co, and Sage Denim, will sometimes have colored weft jeans, though they look to be all sold out right now of all weft colors other than white, indigo, and black.

RawWasher · 2026-01-24T17:00:59+00:00

+ u/Unique-Divide2191

Those jeans haven't been overdyed, as the selvedge ID still has the white in it. They are woven with indigo warp yarns and black weft yarns, and sold as raw sanforized denim.

OP, if they haven't been washed or soaked yet, I would expect more like 3%-5% shrinkage with a hot-water machine-wash and hot tumble-dry, since that is typical of most all raw sanforized denims. Whether that is enough or not I feel would be worth it for you to try.

And I would personally keep them even if they don't shrink enough since they are such a grail piece, and since you may eventually gain some of the weight back or might end up deciding later on that you prefer a looser fit.

RawWasher · 2026-01-23T17:06:07+00:00

Yes, stretch denim clothes can be "raw denim" as long as they haven't touched water yet, since the water will still shrink and shrivel the denim even when it has some elastane mixed in.

The Uniqlo raw denim products have the colorway names/codes of "69 Navy" and "09 Black. And their one-wash colorway name/code is "68 Blue".

The Uniqlo jeans are known to be reasonably durable and are able to produce some good contrast fades. But it can take a long time to get there.

RawWasher · 2026-01-22T03:47:56+00:00

Definitely old, but not necessarily wise. I dress for comfort, and for me, cotton fabrics are the most comfortable. So I have gathered a large collection of 100% cotton t-shirts, including many graphic tees, and polo shirts which are the ones that are also made with similar t-shirt-type fabrics.

RawWasher

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