How to Stretch Shrunken Wool
Everyone has had the experience of accidentally washing a wool sweater. When wool gets wet and warm, the fibers in the wool lock themselves together and don't want to let go, resulting in shrinkage (you can get wool warm or wet, but not both). Read on to try to remedy the problem. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Soak the garment in a tub with a mixture of hair conditioner and water. Gently pull the sweater to reshape.
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Try another method if that doesn't work: Dissolve one ounce of sodium borate (borax) in a couple of tablespoons of hot water, add the mixture to a gallon of lukewarm water, immerse the garment and pull gently into shape. Rinse in a gallon of warm water with 2 tbsp. vinegar.
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Soak the garment in warm water with a mild soap for about 10 minutes to unlock the fibers in the wool. Lay the garment out on some towels in a cool place but don't rinse. You can roll it up in the towel to absorb the excess water.
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Then stretch the garment out to its original dimensions. The stretching (also called blocking) pulls the unlocked wool fibers away from one another.
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Allow the garment to dry for any of the methods mentioned above.
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Tips & Warnings
Watch for the symbol for "superwash," which indicates that the wool product can be successfully machine-washed using a mild detergent and then machine-dried. Relatively new techniques have been developed to improve wool's washability by making the fiber more resistant to felting and shrinkage.
Avoid using any heat ' from a dryer, radiator, hairdryer and so on ' to dry the sweater you are trying to unshrink. The absence of heat from the drying process allows the wool fibers to set in place without locking together and shrinking the garment again.
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Comments
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Thankyou so much for this advise, poster! I was devastated to find that my very expensive 100% wool jumper (that I bought on Boxing Day from Myers last year) shrank when I put it through the washing machine. My machine has a "wool wash" setting, but absent mindedly I just put it on a normal, run of the mill, cold wash. Your remedy, however, seems to be working. I read through the comments and your article, and virtually followed it step by step. Lukewarm bath water, conditioner, soak for a little over an hour. Then, I got as much water out as I could by rolling it into a towel, then I actually put the jumper on, and stretched it to fit like it used to. Every now and again, as it has been drying, I've been gently pulling here and there just to be sure. :) Thanks once again, you're a lifesaver! PS. The hair conditioner actually makes my jumper feel really pretty and soft, as well.
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I will try it.
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There comes a time in every man life when he need to stretch out a shrunken cardigan. today is that day for me.
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I'm t6rying it! im so excited, I hope it works!
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amitshahit
Oct 23, 2010
Thank you very much man...your recipe works perfectly ...the hair conditioner has done the trick and now I can easily wear my stretched woolen sweater. 1) I soaked the sweater in the mixture of lukewarm water and hair conditioner for little more than an hour. 2) Then in the bathroom tied it on hanger for about 15 mins and tried to stretch it a bit. 3) After that taken it out and soaked the extra water with towel by laying it on ground. 4) Then I had taken a fitting shirt to verify the shape of the sweater. 5) I put the sweater on top of my shirt and stretched the sweater as per the shirts measurement. 6) When stretching make sure that both sides are evenly stretched. 7) Better way fold the sweater and stretch so that both sides will be evenly stretched. 8) Now most of the water is removed from the sweater so you can just wear it on top of your T-Shirt and check if the...
