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Why some clothes shrink in the wash and how to unshrink them

swinburne.edu.au

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Re: Why some clothes shrink in the wash and how to unshrink them

#51

Post by ynac »

I'm down to just a few sweat shirts and over shirts from the 80s, but they are hanging in there. Both the colors and the fabric. When the subject comes up with friends who ask about a particular shirt I joke, "The cotton was tougher back then". Recently, I've had jeans, shirts, and even socks that didn't make it through a single summer.

Is anyone else freaked out about cleaning their dryer's lint filter given all the new fabric materials? I'm putting together a dryer-vac system to keep it from billowing into the air of our small laundry room.

Re: Why some clothes shrink in the wash and how to unshrink them

#52

Post by user070223 »

Her logic seems reasonable but stating that the fibers "return to their original crinkled state" is missing the fact that the fiber go through the process of spinning to improve tensile strength (as well as the options of making an infinite yarn from finite fibers by twisting them together). regardless to return to original "crinckled state" they need to overcome those forces as well as the forces of the geometry of the knit(on a different scale).

BTW Rayon is also made from cellulose, cellulose II. While Cellulose I(natural) is metastable it can be converted by disolving in lye to a stable form (beta-gllocouse molecolue chain goes from being parallel to being anti parllel which increases the # of hydrogen bonds as well as helping create a more stable 3d structure) which again improve tensile strength and resist wrinkles on a different scale.

Re: Why some clothes shrink in the wash and how to unshrink them

#53

Post by latexr »

teekert wrote: post #45

My eye hit the "It’s not just hot water – here’s why" as one of the first things... em-dash, here's why... I smell the smelly smell, even though I'm not even opposed to it haha.

It’s not an em-dash, but an en-dash. So it’s incorrectly used.

Re: Why some clothes shrink in the wash and how to unshrink them

#55

Post by fuzzfactor »

rurp wrote: post #33
taeric wrote: post #6

It has been ages since I had clothes shrink on me. To the point that I had assumed something must have gotten better in modern dryers. Is that not the case? Edit: Quickly searching, this appears to be the case? Specifically modern moisture sensing dryers that stop appropriately goes a long way to never having something shrink on you.

I've had the opposite problem where I hadn't had shrinking issues in years until I got a new LG dryer with one of those auto sensing modes that it defaults to. The "smart" feature is terrible . I had a number of shirts shrink on me because it sometimes goes absurdly overboard with the drying. Once we figured out the problem and stopped using all of the smart features it started working fine. Unfortunately the interfa…

I say it's the dryer too, more than the washer for a lot of fabrics.

You just have to figure with all that dryer lint after every single load that your items certainly aren't getting any bigger after giving off all those grams of fiber.

You can only imagine whether or not more or less fiber than that is being lost down the drain with your wash water each time.

Re: Why some clothes shrink in the wash and how to unshrink them

#56

Post by troyvit »

ynac wrote: post #51

I'm down to just a few sweat shirts and over shirts from the 80s, but they are hanging in there. Both the colors and the fabric. When the subject comes up with friends who ask about a particular shirt I joke, "The cotton was tougher back then". Recently, I've had jeans, shirts, and even socks that didn't make it through a single summer. Is anyone else freaked out about cleaning their dryer's lint filter given all the…

I don't have any clothes as old as yours though for sure, but line drying generally helps your clothes last longer. I'm so glad I live in Colorado. It's a warm winter, but it takes like 3 hours to dry stuff on the line (especially synthetics). Of course that means all my synthetic fibers are literally billowing into the air I guess. Still, we've been going without a dryer for about five years now and I've had no regrets.

Re: Why some clothes shrink in the wash and how to unshrink them

#57

Post by moehm »

taeric wrote: post #37
cogman10 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Earlier commenter was talking about getting fatter as they age. Not actual cloths shrinkage.

Ha! Ok, yeah, I definitely missed that aspect of the joke. :D

> Note that I fully understand it for the anecdotal weight that it has.

At this point I thought you were going for an ahem heavy-handed joke.

Re: Why some clothes shrink in the wash and how to unshrink them

#58

Post by jazzyjackson »

ynac wrote: post #51

I'm down to just a few sweat shirts and over shirts from the 80s, but they are hanging in there. Both the colors and the fabric. When the subject comes up with friends who ask about a particular shirt I joke, "The cotton was tougher back then". Recently, I've had jeans, shirts, and even socks that didn't make it through a single summer. Is anyone else freaked out about cleaning their dryer's lint filter given all the…

There's still good fabrics out there you just have to pay for them. I've mostly replaced my wardrobe now with natural undyed cottons and wools from the likes of "unbleached apparel" and "industry of all nations". There is cotton grown in new mexico, socks spun in north carolina. "Filson" makes a few things in Seattle. Don't skip the stuff made in Peru or India neither.

Re: Why some clothes shrink in the wash and how to unshrink them

#59

Post by LUmBULtERA »

ynac wrote: post #51

I'm down to just a few sweat shirts and over shirts from the 80s, but they are hanging in there. Both the colors and the fabric. When the subject comes up with friends who ask about a particular shirt I joke, "The cotton was tougher back then". Recently, I've had jeans, shirts, and even socks that didn't make it through a single summer. Is anyone else freaked out about cleaning their dryer's lint filter given all the…

Yeah, I've started being a bit concerned about inhaling all the tiny plastic fibers every time I clean the filters and wondering what could be doing to my lunges.

Re: Why some clothes shrink in the wash and how to unshrink them

#60

Post by webstrand »

latexr wrote: post #53
teekert wrote: post #45

My eye hit the "It’s not just hot water – here’s why" as one of the first things... em-dash, here's why... I smell the smelly smell, even though I'm not even opposed to it haha.

It’s not an em-dash, but an en-dash. So it’s incorrectly used.

Its correctly used, just not common in American English. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/book/ed18/part2/ch06/ps...>
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