Preventing clothes from shrinking
Oct. 13th, 2010 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dorothean posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
homeeconomics101I've been frustrated over the last few years by having to donate or toss out clothing that I really feel should last longer, because it's shrunk. This is a particular problem with shirts--I can't stand wearing them if the bottom hem pulls up so there's a gap between my shirt and pants--and socks, but I've known it to happen more gradually with pants as well. The shirts get shorter in the arm and body, the socks shrink (sometimes after one wash) from halfway up my calf to three inches up my ankle, and after a year I'll look down and realize that the pants that used to bunch up on the top of my foot are now gapping at the ankle.
After some terrible mistakes (including one with a beautiful wine-red wool sweater that suddenly was no longer my size), I've learned to keep everything I love away from the dryer. I hang up and air-dry all of my nice work pants, all tops that aren't baggy cotton t-shirts, and even some of my favorite socks. And, just to be on the safe side, I wash them in cold water, too.
But they still shrink! I don't know what to do. Any advice?
(The clothes in question are a range of fabrics, mostly cotton and synthetic blends as I rarely dare to buy wool any more. The socks are all from Target, where I buy some of my clothes, but others are from more expensive stores, on the theory--obviously not completely correct--that more expensive clothing will last much longer.)
After some terrible mistakes (including one with a beautiful wine-red wool sweater that suddenly was no longer my size), I've learned to keep everything I love away from the dryer. I hang up and air-dry all of my nice work pants, all tops that aren't baggy cotton t-shirts, and even some of my favorite socks. And, just to be on the safe side, I wash them in cold water, too.
But they still shrink! I don't know what to do. Any advice?
(The clothes in question are a range of fabrics, mostly cotton and synthetic blends as I rarely dare to buy wool any more. The socks are all from Target, where I buy some of my clothes, but others are from more expensive stores, on the theory--obviously not completely correct--that more expensive clothing will last much longer.)
