How to Resize a Shrunken Wool Sweater

Use warm water and baby shampoo to relax wool fibers.

Shrinking your favorite wool sweater can be very disheartening. Avoid shrinkage by always washing wool sweaters according to the tag instructions inside the garment, as wool has a great capacity to shrink if washed improperly. If you accidentally shrank your favorite wool sweater and do not want to part with it, there are tricks you can try to restore the sweater's size, so you can wear it for a long time.

Things You'll Need

• Baby shampoo
• Sink full of warm water
• Large towel
• Large corkboard
• Thumbtacks

Instructions

1. Soak your sweater in a sink full of warm water. Add 2 tablespoons of baby shampoo to the warm water. Let the wool sweater soak for at least 15 minutes to relax the wool fibers.

2. Pull the sweater out of the sink and wring out the excess water from the fabric. You may want to place the sweater on a towel and roll up the sweater in the towel to soak up the extra moisture.

3. Stretch the sweater toward the correct size by pinning it to a corkboard with thumbtacks. After a few hours, stretch the sweater out again and reposition the thumbtacks. Continue this step until the sweater dries completely, and has reached your desired size.

References

• Clean Organized Family Home: How to Unshrink a Sweater

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish