I finally did the shrinking procedure until the end, which means I let the jeans dry on my body. I had LVC 501's and 936 Wranglers tub soakings, but took the jeans off to dry, so this was my first "real" shrink-to-fit procedure.
It was a warm day, so I spontaniously decided to do it, initially I planned the shrinking to take place at the lake when going swimming. I put some towels on the floor to cover the way from our bathroom to the door and got started. Using warm water, I stayed in the tub for almost half an hour. You can literally see how the legs get shorter. After releasing the not too blue water (I thought it would be more coloured), I cuffed the jeans to be able to walk and did a first cleaning of the tub while standing in it. Dripping was minimal, so I went outside. There was a light breeze and with the sun, the jeans dried very quickly. I wouldn't have expected that, really. There was actually no dripping after a few minutes, I returned to the house, prepared dinner, ate outside on a garden chair, did chores and so on. The XXs dried in about 2 hours!! I took them off with only the multi-layerd portion (back pockets and a little on the front) being damp. Man, the jeans almost stood by themselves! They were even stiffer than before. Now I'm not sure if this is normal, it could be our water which has a high hardness (my jeans are very stiff after usual washings, too). When putting them on the floor it looks like the lower half of myself is lying there, lol.
One thing I could tell right away: the 501XX's cut is different to the cut of the prewashed 501s. It's higher on the waist and sits way better. The longer back pockets have shrunk to pre-shrunk proportions, too.
What do you guys reckon, should I do a second shrinking right away or wear the jeans for a while? I'm asking because the are very stiff and still a little large.
