Engineer's Cotton Riding Shirt

How to Break-in an Engineer’s Cotton Riding Shirt

These 100% cotton shirts are as tough as nails. New they are uncomfortably stiff, like unwashed denim. You can run them through your washing machine and dryer half a dozen times and though they’ll shrink a tiny amount (2-3%?), they won’t get much softer. These shirts do become as soft, luxurious and wonderful as old flannel thru use and wear, so eventually you'll have a nice soft-wearing comfortable shirt that’s still cast-iron durable, but who has the patience?

The quick, scientifically-tested shortcut to immediate engineer shirt wearing comfort is:

1. Take shirt from washing machine while it remains damp, or slightly wet.
2. Find a large tree, sturdy wood post, wooden wall or railing. Only wood.
3. Grab the shoulders of the shirt and ‘whap’ it as hard as you can against the wood.
4. Repeat three or four times, then grip a different part of the shirt and repeat.
5. After several more beatings, put the shirt into a clothes dryer (or hang dry).
6. Enjoy a soft, lifetime-durable shirt.

One note about the ‘whapping’ process. Each ‘whap’ will be very loud, almost like a gunshot, so don’t try at night unless you live far from your nearest neighbors. Also never use a concrete, stone or steel surface instead of wood. Hitting against hard surfaces will shatter a few of the shirt’s buttons. (Several gave their lives during break-in research.) Enjoy the ride.