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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

#261

Post by lesostep »

adrianN wrote: post #88
epolanski wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have recently started refusing to buy all of this plastic filled clothes. If I see any % of it I don't buy it. Period. I spend much more upfront for clothes, but I gain a lot long term. Clothes don't look terrible after few washings and they tend to last forever.

I once bought 100% hemp pants because I heard that material is tougher than cotton, but my bicycle seat killed the pants in just a few weeks. Modern jeans last a few months to a year. I have yet to find pants that endure a bicycle commute.

Hemp fibers are tougher then cotton Ironically, that's why hemp is comonnly used to make thinner more airy and less heavy fabrics. So the final products aren't always more resistant to wear and tear just because fibers are

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

#262

Post by gamzer »

Melatonic wrote: post #197
sva_ wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pro tip: if your clothes say 100% merino wool or whatever, this is only about the fiber, and they may still be covered in plastic from the "superwash" process (for example, almost all merino wool is)

Link to more details ?

Search for Superwash, Hercosett 125 and machine-washable wool.

Also mentioned here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wool#History

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

#263

Post by MrBeanDean »

adrianN wrote: post #88
epolanski wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have recently started refusing to buy all of this plastic filled clothes. If I see any % of it I don't buy it. Period. I spend much more upfront for clothes, but I gain a lot long term. Clothes don't look terrible after few washings and they tend to last forever.

I once bought 100% hemp pants because I heard that material is tougher than cotton, but my bicycle seat killed the pants in just a few weeks. Modern jeans last a few months to a year. I have yet to find pants that endure a bicycle commute.

Had my Nudie jeans for about 5 year wearing them probably 4 days a week averaged over the whole time. Indeed the frequent cycling killed them, but it took quite a while. Now I'm figuring out when to bring them to their free repair service to see if I can get a prolonged live for them.

Disclaimer: cycled probably only 15 minutes a day with them averaged over the whole time, but really hard to say, so your millage might vary

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

#264

Post by sitharus »

itsgrimetime wrote: post #251
sitharus wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just try to buy natural or the semi-synthetic cellulose fabrics, there's quite a variety. Natural fabrics are cotton, silk, wool and linen of course, but the semi-synthetic fabrics like the rayons (viscose, modal, "bamboo", Tencel, Lyocell, Bemberg, and some sorts of artificial silk) are wood cellulose chemically rearranged so they're just cellulose when they reach you. The fabric referred to as Acetate is cellulos…

ive recently found some rayon shirts I really like, but how do you wash them without destroying them? everything I've read online says dry cleaning is the only way

For viscose most rayon a gentle cycle in a front loading washing machine is generally fine, though the more silk-like variants are less resilient. You might want to put it in a garment washing bag to make sure it doesn't get stretched while wet. If you don't have that it's dry-clean only.

Varieties like modal and Lyocell are machine washable.

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

#265

Post by rjmunro »

I want someone to engineer a fabric / fibre that grows with each wash rather than shrinks. I feel like with modern materials science it must be possible.

I'd use it for children's clothes. After you wash the clothes, you wait for the kid to grow a bit before they wear it again. No more growing out of your favourite things.

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

#266

Post by cutemonster »

strbean wrote: post #211
ravenstine wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can confirm that you really don't want to breathe in any of that crap. A year and a half ago I developed symptoms of what was some form of bronchitis. Lots of mucus, constantly coughing, etc. I was pretty freaking sick. I tend to wait some things like this out, but it wasn't going away so I went to a doctor and got some medications including albuterol and some kind of steroid (prednisone, I think). It got a little…

If you were never a smoker, hopefully your mucociliary escalator can deal with all the lint you inhaled!

Thanks for mentioning, the escalator was interesting to read about

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

#267

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

jjice wrote: post #125
epolanski wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have recently started refusing to buy all of this plastic filled clothes. If I see any % of it I don't buy it. Period. I spend much more upfront for clothes, but I gain a lot long term. Clothes don't look terrible after few washings and they tend to last forever.

Why? Polyester (as one plastic based fiber) gets a lot of flack because low quality clothes tend to use it, but polyester can be a fantastic fabric if done right. Durable, fast drying, and can be completely recycled. For example, Patagonia tends to have high quality polyesters and has since the 70s. My experience with their fleece is that I can abuse it and it'll come out unaffected on the other end. Pilling now and…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomex

Still going strong in my CWU-45P from 1980 :)

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

#268

Post by 542354234235 »

fpoling wrote: post #231
ravenstine wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can confirm that you really don't want to breathe in any of that crap. A year and a half ago I developed symptoms of what was some form of bronchitis. Lots of mucus, constantly coughing, etc. I was pretty freaking sick. I tend to wait some things like this out, but it wasn't going away so I went to a doctor and got some medications including albuterol and some kind of steroid (prednisone, I think). It got a little…

We have a washing machine that also has a drier function. It dries much slower than a standalone drier as it consumes water during the drying circle to cool and condense the hot air from the clothes. But the big plus is that it works in mostly closed cycle reusing the air. And there is no need to clean the filter, just unclog the sink pipes once in few months.

Heat pump dryer. Basically, an HVAC system but instead of pumping the heat from your house outside, it pumps it into your clothes. Slower than an old-style dryer but way more efficient.

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

#269

Post by IAmBroom »

cyberax wrote: post #154
dekhn wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nearly every environment-adjacent field has concern nannies who make unrealistic risk assessments which then get regurgitated into guilt-inspiring newspaper articles. This is especially common when there is no way to determine for certain what the actual risk is; some folks fall on the "allow zero risk" side.

Some concern is warranted. I think that plasticizer or dyes leaching from plastics is a very real problem, so I try to avoid food stored in plastic containers (this includes tin cans, they are often lined with plastic). This is a solvable problem, though. Polyethylene doesn't need plasticizers.

> I think that plasticizer or dyes leaching from plastics is a very real problem

Maybe. You're apparently guessing. It might be a trivial concern. The post above you is pointing out that, lacking real data, we don't know.

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

#270

Post by IAmBroom »

BeastMachine wrote: post #44
systemtest wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had that issue but as it turns out I was just getting fatter

As silly as this sounds, the same thing happened to me. I was getting pretty frustrated because all of my pants kept shrinking.. the truth hurt.

Your pain is shared, brother. Or sister.
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