hi everyone!
so i was just going through my closet (gettin ready to take some pics for the site!) and i tried on a couple of dresses... and it seems that they shrunk after i washed them!! its not even horizontal shrinkage, but vertical.. they are all a lot shorter! any way to stretch them?

the only idea i had is placing tiny weights on the bottom of the hem and waiting for gravity.. but now it seems very sci-fi.

any advice will be appreciated! thank you.

ps. the dresses are a cotton/jersey blend i think.. i cut the tags out.

This may sound odd, but it can work with cotton Woven fabrics; but if you say its a jersey, that means its a knit and it may not work. Get the garment wet in cold water and very gently pull on the bottom with two hands, one hand at the bottom and one further up top. (be careful not to pull too hard and rip the fabric and/or the hem). Make sure that you only pull vertically and not diagonally, if you pull diagonally you will mess with the grain of the fabric and will end up with a funny shaped, warped dress.

If you find you run in to shrinking problems a lot, consider air-drying tricky garments, even laying them flat on a table works. Also putting any garments that have elastic/spandex-lycra in the hot dryer can shorten the lifespan/effectiveness of the spandex, so its a good idea to air dry or set your dryer to a low heat.

i hope this works for you :)

A low tech solution that sometimes works for me is to just wear a garment that has shortened itself... body heat can loosen and lengthen pieces. this tends to work better for looser knits... just an idea and NOT very scientific.

Some things I've read are to wash it in cold water and hang dry it upside down, pulling on it to gently stretch it. I accidentally shrunk a wool sweater and this worked out, should work better with cotton though :)

Put the garment on while it's wet and stretch it down if it's a dress or tee, and if its jeans/shorts do lots of squats and stretches. Uncomfortable but it works! and you can check your progress while you're wearing it

I accidently shrunk a wool sweater that was one of my favorites. I've tried draping it on a drying rack and it only slightly stretched any ideas? (It had a cowl neck and 3/4 sleeves and was boxy before I washed it) Maybe i can try hanging it wet. Or do you think a dry cleaner would be able to help?

i work with a lot of jersey and you are supposed to soak them before you actually stitch a dress but a lot of companies sont do this and customers end up with deshaped garments... honestly there is nt much you can do.. if you pull it parts of the knit will strech and you'll end up with an uneven hemline.. all you can do it try wearing the shorter length or if its too short use tights.. and in the future you could try air drying it by squeesing all the excess water and hanging it on a hanger or lying flat on the table.. very fine knitted garments WILL become deshaped after a while and you cant really help it.

As a "sewer"/designer, who works with a lot of fabrics...I agree w/ Tania...once it's shrunk, there's not much you can do. Trying to stretch it out will make it look weird and misshapen. It is best to keep 100% cotton (or high cotton content) items away from the dryer. Stick to laying flat to dry, or hanging if necessary. Also, never wash them in warm water.