Shrink / Enlarge

I had an email from a reader from this blog concerning a shirt he bought and after putting it in the wash it had shrunk. He wanted to know how to bring it back to it's orignal state.

First of all, if people wanting to shrink a shirt to make it smaller, they should check to see if they're preshrunk, it should say so on the tags. If they are then shrinking them is near impossible as they have already gone through a shrinking process at the factory. To shrink a shirt, you should wash it with hot water and then heat it with high heat.

That's just an idea, i've never tried it though.

BUT to make a shirt return to it's orignal state after being shrunk, oooo, i'll have to think about that one.
OK....i've thought about it


I've heard if you soak in cold water and liquid fabric softner that the fabric will relax. But if that does not make much difference then in the future use cold water wash and hanging air dry to ensure minimum shrinkage. Look at the tags when buying for future protection in this area.

But No..i think unfortunately it won't be exactly the same as they were when you bought them. A t-shirt will shrink if its 100%cotton. Make sure to buy shirts that are pre-shrunk or of a cotton blend with other material. If you buy a 100%cotton shirt, wash is as usual but DO NOT dry it. Only air dry so it will keep its shape. Any other are safe to dry and will not shrink.

However my readers may know much better from experiences, so please leave comments and help the poor guy out who emailed me.