Surely the same thing has happened to you as it has happened to me: you have washed a wool sweater with the rest of the clothes by mistake and you have taken a mini or micro version of it out of the washing machine. With this trick to stretch a wool sweater that had shrunk you will be able to recover the original size of any wool garment.
The truth is that this is not the first time something similar has happened to me, nor do I think it will be the last. Normally I try to wash woolen clothes by hand or with the washing machine’s special program for wool, but this time I forgot to separate the sweater from the rest of the clothes. Being black, I couldn’t distinguish it when I did the laundry for dark clothes.
In the following image you can see how the sweater turned out when I took it out of the washing machine. To appreciate the difference in size, it is on top of a gray one of the same style and size.
It made me very angry when I realized the disaster since it is one of the basic sweaters in the wardrobe, which you can use season after season because they never go out of style. So I looked for a natural solution to make the garment fit my body again. After all, there was little else to lose.
Products and materials that you will need
The products and materials that we will need to stretch a jersey (or any other wool garment), are the following:
- White wine vinegar. A good splash of vinegar will be necessary, I used about 25 cl (a glass).
- hair mask. You have to apply a generous amount so I advise you to use an economic one. A hair mask is similar to a hair softener product, but differs in that it is usually thicker and must be applied for a few minutes to work. You can find several examples in this link.
- A basin or basin with warm water (hot tap water for example).
How to stretch a shrunken sweater step by step
To recover your shrunk garment you will only need 5 steps:
Step 1 – Mix Vinegar and Hair Mask
Once we have everything, the first thing we will do is mix the vinegar with the hair mask and warm water until the result is homogeneous. What I did was use the electric mixer to get it.
Keep in mind that the wool is animal hair (in the case of my sweater, merino sheep), for this reason the mask will help soften the wool.
On the other hand, both vinegar and bicarbonate has many applications for the home (You can check it in this post to clean the oven with vinegar and this other one with cleaning tricks with baking soda).
Step 2: dip
The garment is then submerged for approximately half an hour, in this way we manage to soften and soften the fibers of the wool.
Step 3: Stretch
Next what we will do is slowly and carefully stretch the sweater. We will do it in a uniform way so that it is equal to us and not with one sleeve longer than another, for example. Then we leave the garment to soak for another half hour maximum.
Step 4: Rinse
The next step consists of rinse the sweater with cold water to remove all traces of vinegar and mask. What I did was place it on the shower tray and pour water on it with the shower head until the foam stopped coming out.
Step 5: Drain and Hang
Next I wrung out the sweater by hand and hung it inside the shower to drip off excess water. When laying it out I did it from the bottom, in this way the weight of the wet jersey also contributes to its stretching.
Once it stopped dripping, I put the sweater on the clothesline to dry completely. It is convenient that the last phase of drying is done in the open air. In this way, it is better ventilated and the remains of the vinegar smell that the garment may have are eliminated. While the scent of the hair mask helps to mask that smell.
After all these steps, it can be seen with the naked eye that the sweater has returned to its initial size. Still, still can be stretched a little more with the iron if you think it necessary.
Below you can see how it has been once dry and ironed. Now you can hardly see the gray sweater that is underneath and that I have placed to compare the size.
You can’t even imagine how happy I am with the final result. Not only have I managed to get my jumper back but it’s also super soft and smells amazing, it looks brand new!!!
extra trick
This trick can not only be applied in the case of wool garments that have shrunk, but also when we want to stretch a certain part of the garment. It will be very useful to stretch a very short sleeve or the length of a dress, for example. It is clear that we will not be able to stretch it to infinity, but we will surely gain a few centimeters.
did you know this trick to stretch a wool sweater that has shrunk? Of course, I would have liked to have met him earlier because I would have saved more than one woolen garment thanks to him. From now on I will try to be more careful when washing woolen clothes, but at least now I know that there is a 100% effective remedy if they shrink.
If you liked this post, you have many more interesting tricks at .
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