Thanks, Angie! That is a great tip about softening them up in the dryer for a couple of minutes after they’re air-dried.

I will try that with my clothes. I hate ironing.

I do mine a bit differently. After washing in cold water, I put the jeans, still inside out, in a cold dryer to tumble for about 10 minutes with no heat. I might add a fabric softener sheet, but usually don’t. Then I take out the still-wet jeans which have become softer and lost most of their wrinkles. I hang them up right side out to continue drying with a man’s clip pant hanger clipped to the bottoms of the legs and something a bit weighty hanging from it (like a heavy wooden suit hanger) to stretch out any remaining wrinkles. No ironing needed.
My laundry is in the basement where I have some clotheslines for drying.
So far I have had good luck with jeans looking like new using this method. Yours sounds easier so I’ll give it a try.

My denim MO is almost identical to yours Angie. Except for the dryer on low heat at the end, since I don’t own a dryer;-) So I just iron my jeans, not one of my favourite pastimes, but I just put on a fun audiobook and get on with it.

I’m rather embarrassed to admit that in our house everything goes right into the dryer. Perhaps someday I shall be organized enough to implement your denim regime. The first step shall be to have a closet empty enough to hang wet clothes in.

Great tips! I wash inside out in warm wash/cool rinse setting and then turn right side out to hang dry over a towel rack. In my experience, the key is washing them inside out. Friction is what rubs off the color, so your jeans fade more quickly if you wash them right side out. I don’t have a dryer, so can’t comment on that part! If your jeans are crunchy after washing, you might be using too much detergent! The NYTimes just had an article about that.

I never tumble dry jeans either. In fact, I rarely tumble dry any clothes of mine. I do tumble towels, mens socks and pants and old pyjamas of both gender. I hang my jeans over a radiator to dry and this seems to work ok. But I never remember to turn them inside out, so I’ll try after reading these wise thoughts.

I line dry jeans inside out. Movement of air (ie the wind!) means they don’t get ‘crunchy’ and the wrinkles get blown out. I live in a country where EVERYONE has a clothesline!

any particular reason that you turn right side out to dry? I actually leave mine inside out to hang dry and leave them inside out until I wear them….. this way I know when I’m wearing them for the first time after washing. I know how weird that must sound I have these little quirks about me.
Whether or not I put my jeans in the dryer depends on how long they are taking to dry. If I get tired of waiting for them to dry, I will throw them in the dryer to finish it off.

I do almost the same, except I iron them. I don’t mind ironing jeans because I’m less likely to screw up and make mistakes with denim.

Angie, what’s a gentle detergent? Something like Woolite?

I do the same as you, except for the 2 minute dry at the end. I live in an apartment building with coin operated laundry, and waisting the cost of a full dry on 2 minutes doesn’t make financial sense, unfortunately.

I always wash my jeans on cold, then hang-dry them, but don’t bother with either dryer or iron afterward. A few good shakes or scrunches and about five minutes of wearing gets them all soft and smooth.

I discovered this when my mother used to dry the jeans of all 7 family members on the line and there was absolutely no time to iron them!!!

With my own personal jeans, I use the “steam” option on our washer and then I either use the “air dry” feature on the dry or literally air them dry.

With my family’s jeans I wash in cold and line dry.

I wish this mattered. My jeans wear thin at the crotch within a year. I so wish I had jeans that lasted years and had that second skin feel. Around the time the jeans really start feeling comfortable, they’re near the end already (I like jeans with no stretch; they last longer).

Not that I even have a dryer.

I hang dry my jeans, and pretty much everything else I own. I actually find that my clothes get wrinkled when I put them in the dryer, but not when I hang dry them. I hang dry them inside too, so no wind. Weird. I don’t even own an iron.

I forgot to mention, since I almost never use the dryer on my clothes, I always add a generous amount of fabric softener to the washer.

Thanks for the tip about turning the denim inside out! I pretty much do everything else the same as you, except for the part about putting them in the dryer for the last few minutes. I always hang mine to dry and then iron to get the wrinkles out. My husband and son don’t like theirs ironed, so it’s a few good shakes to get the wrinkles out of theirs before folding.

Since I’ve stepped up to premium denim, my routine is very similar to yours. I don’t usually throw them back in the dryer or iron them for softness- I just put them on and wear it in. I find that within a short period of time the “crunch” factor is completely gone, and since I go several wearings betweenwashing it really isn’t a big deal.

i wash jeans in cold water and hang them on a rack. I don’t mind the stiffness. They soften up within minutes of putting them on (at least premium jeans).

I do NOT tumble dry jeans, ever. Even my $20 denim leggings.

In France, no one had dryers. Everything was hung or laid flat. I think I would probably do the same if I had my own house. Dryers are terribly inefficient.

I wash my good denim inside-out on the gentle cycle and hang dry. Scrunch them a little and wear them a few minutes and the crunch is gone.

My play/farm jeans get tossed into the washer and dryer and get no respect at all:)

We have a clothesline outside and we hang all our denim inside out too and also toss them in the dryer for a few min. to soften:) Seems we are on the same page here Angie:)

I wash mine inside out in cold water. After removing them from the washer, I shake and/or smooth them with my hands before hanging on a line or over a drying rack. I do this for all clothes that I don’t tumble dry, because it pretty much eliminates the need for ironing, other than wrinkle prone clothing such as button down shirts. There’s no need to iron because the wrinkles aren’t allow to set as they dry.

I used to hang dry my denim when I bought better quality jeans. Lately all my jeans are $50 pairs, since I get bored of styles and my weight fluctuates so frequently, so I put them in the dryer with my socks and towels. I hang other items to dry (like bras, dress pants, button-downs, leggings, etc) but I don’t bother with jeans anymore. I hate that crunchy feel, and the real estate for hanging clothes to dry in our apartment is limited. But if I were buying nicer denim, absolutely I would hang it.

My routine is similar to Angie’s except I only do the 2-minute fluff if I am at my parent’s house (don’t have my own dryer). I wish I had the space you have to hang-dry. I hang mine on the shower curtain rail which is a pain the next morning when they are still damp and I need to shower.

I also do same as you Angie, but without the final fryer stage. I find that my jeans become softer pretty quickly after a couple of hours of wear.

Well, premium denim doesnt come in my size so I wear regular old jeans. I wash them in cold water, inside out, and I never put them in the dryer but twice a month a cleaning lady comes to my house and sometimes she puts them in the drier and never seems to remember when I ask her not to do it again. Bless her heart; she does incredible work and if putting my denim (and nice lingerie!) in the drier once in a while, well, I still consider myself lucky!

My routine is the same, minus the dryer. I hang them to dry in the basement, and it takes a while for them to get completely dry. Like Tanya, I find that they soften very quickly. I also don’t wash them very frequently, and it’s worked well so far.

I wash mine inside out in cold water then tumble dry on low heat for 15 min and then hang dry them.they are always soft and never changed shape.

I wash all of my jeans and twill pants the same way (as Angie). I’ve lost some weight and did put a pair of loose jeans in the dryer but after reading this article realize that I may have been doing more harm than good if the stretch is damaged in the dryer.

We don’t have a dryer in our chalet BUT living in the Swiss countryside air drying is quite nice! However….during the cold months I wash in cold water and hang dry indoors…

I also spritz my jeans with a VERY watered down solution of my favorite liquid fabric softener….just enough softener to add a light fragrance and eliminate the stiffness….

I wash my denium identically to you but I use the delicate cycle to wash them…Mine have lasted and look great…

I had no idea that lycra behaved that way! Makes perfect sense, though, now that you spell it out …

I have a trick to delay washing my jeans…when they get stretched out and sort of tired feeling, I spritzed them with wrinkle releaser (you could also use Febreze, a little fabric softener in water, or just water) until the surface is slightly damp. Then, I turn them inside out and tumble in the dryer on medium heat for about 10 minutes. It totally refreshes them and I can put off washing them (which ruins the color).

I do the same except I flip them right side out after they’re dry, not before and I don’t put them in the dryer at all. Yeah, they are a bit stiff at first but I guess my brain now associates that with them being clean and freshly washed so I don’t mind at all!

I’m with Anne, my jeans wear out in the inner thighs before I have to be worried about the dryer ruining them. But I do use the dryer in the winter, trying to not overdry anything, and line dry in the summer – the adjustment between the winter ‘size’ of something dryer-dried and the summer size line-dried can be an inch or two, I’ve noticed, but eventually they stretch out to the same with wear any way. I prefer jeans without lycra because I don’t have to worry about the bagging factor and they last longer. I don’t mind the crispy feel of line-dried clothes in the summer, in fact I like it, although towels are less pleasant until you use them a few times.

I turn mine inside out and wash on cold but I have put all my jeans in the dryer and have not found it stretched them out or harmed them in any way, even the expensive ones.

Is it the washing or drying that causes them to fade more?

I note that jeans seem to shrink in length more than in width, and I can’t afford to lose an inch of length or they look like high-waters pants on me. The rare pair of jeans that are too long get put in the dryer a time or two to shorten the length and then — no more dryer.

I turn mine inside out, wash in cold water with detergent only and NO softener. Still inside out, I hang them to air-dry. The next step I learned from Lucky Magazine. After they’re dry (still inside out) I rub the dryer sheet on them. That really helps with the stiffness. Then I flip them right side out and fold. Angie, why do you hang them right side out? Does it help keep the original fit?

[...] rid that “crunchy” feeling or iron pocket flaps and hemlines. I noticed that Angie at You Look Fab does almost the opposite and has amazing results which alleviates [...]

Wow, this is great advice, Angie. I never thought about jeans growing from stretching out the lycra. I’ll definitely put this into practice, especailly since jeans take so long to dry and it’ll save energy and money too.

Angie, I am amazed that you still have six-year-old jeans in active rotation. I typically wear my jeans for two to three years, and at that point I am ready for something new. Six years ago, my very favorite jeans were the old Gap Long and Leans, which by current standards had quite a wide leg, especially below the knee. I also had bootcut jeans that were flared a lot wider than I would now wear, and fairly wide straight-leg jeans. I have only one of these pairs still around, and they are my gardening jeans!

So I don’t see a lot of advantage in coaxing six years’ wear out of my jeans–but then I don’t spring for premium jeans. I do wash my jeans inside out, but I tumble dry them in the winter; often, but not always, I hang them outside to dry in the summer. I honestly don’t notice a whole lot of difference in the fit either way, although the first time jeans are tumble dried, they do lose half an inch or so in length.

Incredible timing with this post! After religiously (obsessively?) browsing this site for the last week or so, I’ve decided that a) with my apple tendencies I was right on the money when I picked up my first pair of DKNY SOHO jeans about a year ago, and b) I’ve ruined them by throwing them in the dryer. I already knew I wasn’t really supposed to be drying them, but when I didn’t dry my jeans they were always crunchy. So for the last 24-48 hours or so, I’ve been pondering what to do.

Now I know.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

LOVE this site and all of your insights, Angie.

I air dry all my clothes including jeans. I have jeans that I am still wearing after ten years. I dry my jeans on clothes drying rack. I shake them before hanging them over the rack this tends to seperate the fabric and helps them dry faster and softer. I then shack them when I take them off the rack. I never have to iron my clothes. Also the more synthetics that are mixed in with the cotton the faster they will dry with fewer wrinkles.