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.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Tubs
• Tubs
• Hair conditioner
• Water
• Water
• Sodium borate
• Vinegar
• Vinegar
• Towels
• Towels
• Towels

1. Soak the garment in a tub with a mixture of hair conditioner and water. Gently pull the sweater to reshape.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Then stretch the garment out to its original dimensions. The stretching (also called blocking) pulls the unlocked wool fibers away from one another.

5. Allow the garment to dry for any of the methods mentioned above.

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.

[breezyk]

on 10/20/2009 Your remedy works! THANK YOU. I accidently put a beautiful cashmere dress into a regular wash and thought it was ruined forever. Everyone told me to make a bag or a cushion cover from it but I ignored all the negative comments and tried your remedies above and my dress is now almost back to normal. It is certainly still wearable. I soaked it in a mixture of water and hair conditioner in the bath for an hour, then gently stretched it out and left it to dry in the bathroom, hanging on a wide gentleman's hanger. I continued gently stretching - and hey presto it reponded. It is certanly worth trying these remedies. A HUGE THANK YOU. I AM NOW SNUGGLED UP IN MY FAVOURITE WOOLEN DRESS ON A CHILLY AUTUMN DAY AND AM SO GLAD IT'S NOT A CUSHION COVER OR IN THE BIN. Be positive and go for it if your woolens shrink. It might just work for you. If not, you know you tried. B

on 8/3/2006 Soak the shrunken item in cold water. Then heat an iron to a warm heat and iron the garment until you have created the desired size.

on 2/10/2006 Some of these will work to a degree, but for the most part, once shrunk always shrunk. Handle wool gently and try never to agitate or wring.

on 12/8/2008 Boil a shrunken wool garment in one part vinegar and two parts water for 25 minutes. Reshape the garment and allow it to air dry.

To resize woolens after shrinking, dissolve one oz borax in one tsp hot water, ad to one gallon warm water. Immerse garment and pull gently to shape. Rinse in one gallon warm water to which two Tbl spoon Vinegar has been added.