How to “shrink” an item to the desired size using washing?

Clothes made from natural fabrics quickly stretch with regular wear, losing their original appearance and clear shape. Before you go to the studio for corrections or throw away your favorite product, you should familiarize yourself with the recommendations on how to wash the item so that it shrinks. This technique has proven itself to be a quick and effective way to solve the problem.

If you do everything correctly, you can count on a positive result after the first approach. Simple manipulations can restore a favorite sweater that has become oversized, a sweater that is sagging in certain areas, a hat that has lost its elasticity, and even a delicate silk blouse.

It is worth considering that if a problem occurs with synthetic fabric, it can only be restored if there are natural fibers in the fabric. However, only mixed synthetics are capable of stretching and losing their shape.

How to make something made of wool shrink?

When restoring woolen items, you need to read the instructions for washing them and do the opposite. You just need to act carefully, without going to extremes.

To minimize the risk of product damage, it is recommended to work according to the following scheme:

First, soak the damaged sweater or hat in hot water. The duration of the stage should not be more than half an hour.The fluid temperature is set approximately 20 degrees higher than what is indicated on the label.
After the specified time, rinse the woolen item using very cold water, you can even add a few pieces of ice to the liquid. A properly organized temperature difference can do a significant part of the work.
Wrap the washed wool in a dry and warm terry towel. Remove excess moisture with blotting movements. Twisting woolen items is highly discouraged, especially a sweater, dress or jacket.
Next, the clothes are dried. We lay hygroscopic fabric on a dense horizontal surface without visible relief. Lay a sweater or other item on top. It is advisable to direct flows of artificial heat onto the wool, then the shrinkage will be more dense. During drying, you need to give the item the desired shape with your hands, regularly adjusting the material so that it does not stretch.

Tip: It is better to pull a woolen hat onto an inverted salad bowl or vase with a rounded smooth bottom of a suitable size.

Washing in a machine also causes strong shrinkage, but it is very difficult to control the process. As a last resort, a stretched sweater can be washed in a special mode for wool or hand washed, but the result can be unpredictable.

How to “plant” cotton at home?

Practice shows that a cotton T-shirt stretches even faster than a wool sweater. But even in this case, it is possible to adjust the shape of the thing. It is worth considering that when working with cotton, restoration is only possible if the clothing was sewn correctly. If the threads are located and directed incorrectly, then nothing can be done.

Cotton products give maximum shrinkage in the following cases:

Machine wash using very hot water and maximum spin.
The product can simply be dipped in boiling water. True, even a short stay of a colored product in such hot water can provoke it to shed. But just five minutes of treatment will reduce the item by size, a quarter of an hour in boiling water and the clothes will become 1.5-2 sizes smaller.
If you don’t want to risk the color of the item, then it is better to wash it in the traditional way, and then put it in an electric dryer.

We evaluate the result based on the completely dried product. If you can't do anything the first time, you shouldn't even try again. The positive effect most likely will no longer occur, but the item will ultimately be damaged. In this case, you will have to contact a studio or update your wardrobe.

Effective methods of treating denim, silk and synthetics

Work with denim is carried out only if it contains cotton. In this case, all responsibility for the result again lies with hot water. We soak the product in a liquid whose temperature should not exceed 60ºC, otherwise the color of the material will begin to wash out. After the water has cooled, wash the items as usual, trying to rub as little as possible. Then we wring out the trousers using a terry towel and lay them out to dry. In this case, parts of the product should not be pulled back. We dry jeans in a vertical position only if we need to maintain their length by reducing the volume.

To reduce the size of a silk product, it is enough to hold it in warm water, the temperature of which will be within the maximum permissible limits. After which the item dries naturally.

Polyester and nylon will shrink noticeably if you simply wash them in cold water.It is better to dry them in a washing machine at high speed. Otherwise, the product will have to be dried directly on the radiator.

Acrylic, spandex and lycra products cannot be reduced by chemical or physical influences. Their size can only be changed by altering the item. But if such materials have already stretched, then it will be very difficult to restore the original shape of the product.