How to prevent your fabrics from shrinking

Tired of having to find your clothes too tight after a wash? Annoyed that your slipcover shrunk after tumbling it in the dryer, even on the delicate cycle?

Well this isn’t an infomercial, but we will tell you how you can avoid all these problems by simply following this guide.

Prevention is better than cure

I know I know, all of our moms and grandmothers have told us the same story over and over again and at the end of the day – we know they were right.

So the first way to prevent your fabrics from shrinking is to know your fabrics and how they should be taken care of. Most of the time, the places you purchase your fabric products from would provide a care guide.

Otherwise, simply contact them for help, ask your mom or look for help online if you need to decipher laundry instructions. Here’s one by http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/

To give you a better understanding of fabric shrinkage, here’s what you need to know:

1. Not all fabrics were created equally

First and foremost, the greatest offenders of fabric shrinkage would be the natural fabrics such as cotton, wool and linen.

That’s why some people (my mom) prefer synthetic material – they don’t really shrink in general, but I’ll elaborate further below on why this shouldn’t be made an automatic assumption.

2. Fabrics don’t shrink only because of heat

Shrinkage typically occurs due to a combination of heat, water and agitation (caused by spin cycles or tumbling) so yes – that’s exactly why we’re only able to handwash certain fabrics.

So it’s definitely not right to think that:
– If I don’t use heat, my fabrics won’t shrink
– If I’m using a delicate cycle, my fabrics won’t shrink

These are unfortunately, untrue.

3. If it shrinks, it can stretch too

Surprise! And this applies to synthetic fabrics albeit rarely. The main takeaway here is that the combination of heat, water and agitation causes deformity in the fabrics – what we more commonly experience as shrinking, and sometimes simultaneously stretching as well.

Here’s a detailed explanation on Quora as to, “Why clothes shrink when you wash them“.

In an oversimplified nutshell, heat is a catalyst in chemical reactions and fabrics are made up of tiny substances that are affected by this, resulting in either shrinking and/or stretching.

To avoid this problem, this is why many fabrics are sanforised – which is the controlled process of heating, spraying water and agitating fabrics so that shrinking/stretching would be minimised upon washing or drying.

Cheatsheat to prevent fabric shrinkage

Okay you came here looking for solution(s), so here they are:

• Handwash in cold water only
• Rinse in cold water only
• Dry fabrics as spread out as possible, with good air circulation and in indirect sunlight
• Always set cold water and delicate cycle if machine washing
• NEVER machine dry

If you follow the above steps, you’re pretty much guaranteed your clothes and fabric slipcovers are safe from shrinking 🙂

Hope this helps!

References:
– http://laundry.about.com/od/laundrybasics/a/washingsweaters.htm
– https://www.quora.com/Why-do-clothes-shrink-when-you-wash-them
– https://www.cleanipedia.com/gb/laundry-washing/a-guide-to-stop-cotton-shrinking