Clothing 101: Can Shrinkage Be Reversed?

Remember the movie, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids? If only we could take a ray gun and shrink all our problems.

Unfortunately, when it comes to clothes, that’s the last thing you’d want to do. Growing up, most of us would hear, “It’s not that your clothes are shrinking; you’re getting taller!”

But it makes one wonder: do our clothes really shrink? And if they do, is there a way to reverse the problem?

The answer is yes. Yes, you can. So, how can you reverse shrinking? Let’s take a look:

Stretching Out Cotton T-Shirts

Actually, the thing is, clothes don’t really “shrink.” When you place them in the dryer, the dryer increases the weave’s tightness. So, what you’re really supposed to do is stretch the t-shirt out.

Luckily, cotton is very easy to stretch and manipulate back into shape. Here’s one thing you can do:

Step # 1: Fill a bucket with warm water

Step # 2: Add a little bit of hair conditioner or baby shampoo

Step # 3: Soak the t-shirt for 20 to 30 minutes

Step # 4: Take out the t-shirt and squeeze to remove excess water

Step # 5: Tie the edges and let the t-shirt dry

unshrinking-cloth

Stretching Jeans

Jeans are tougher to stretch out, unlike cotton. Although jeans don’t usually shrink, some fabrics are an exception. If your jeans have shrunk, here’s what you should do:

Step # 1: Fill your bathtub with warm water

Step # 2: Wear your jeans and sit in the tub full of water

Step # 3: Squeeze excess water out of the jeans

Step # 4: Wear the jeans for at least an hour

The trick is to wear your jeans while they’re slightly wet. This will help stretch them out. When they dry, they’ll be back to their original size.

In Conclusion

When it comes to unshrinking clothes, the problem is that DIYs can only work for certain fabrics. If you want to reverse shrinking or prevent your clothes from shrinking, sending your garments to a professional dry cleaner is the best way to do it.

This is where we come in. We offer laundry dry cleaning and various services for all your laundry-related woes. One of our services includes preservation. Get your special clothes preserved so you don’t have to worry about missing out special events!

We also offer pick-up and delivery service in numerous areas in Austin, TX.