Errata: Ignoring Dry-Cleaning Instructions Does Have Consequences

If you've been following this blog, you'll know that I almost always ignore "dry clean only" labels. That's because I've gotten away with washing them by hand without shrinkage. Why bother paying the dry-cleaning bill if I can take care of it myself?

This time, my willful disobedience of instructions backfired on me in the worst way.

Here's my victim, after it was rescued:

Yes, I said "rescued." I can't believe I almost ruined this lovely new Jak & Rae top, purchased during my last trip Loehmann's (see last post). It wasn't very expensive, which was why I was willing to chance washing by hand (I would never do that with my suits). Still, if I did total it, I wouldn't have been able to buy a replacement. Fortunately, this story has a happy ending, but I'm here to let know what to do to prevent a scare in the first place.

I hand-wash things for a number of reasons. First, people have done it for years before dry cleaning existed. Second, most things won't shrink through contact with cold water, despite the "dry clean only" label. Even if a new piece is machine-washable, I do it in order to prevent brilliant dyes from leaching onto the rest of my laundry (since I have to pay to get laundry done most of the time, I save money by not separating colors). However, reasons #1 and 2 need to be reevaluated. True, people have washed lots of fabrics, even delicate ones, throughout history, but that's before man- and woman-kind were able to invent new fiber materials that don't necessarily conform to the laws of nature. Some of those newfangled fibers will shrink if you wash them.

My top was 100% Rayon. I figured that I've machine-washed some rayon-blend clothes before and they came out fine, so hand-washing should be fine. After I washed it and wrung it, I thought, "Wow, this is really heavy! I guess rayon absorbs tons of water!" I hung it on a drying rack, but I grew impatient at the snail's pace of drying. I tossed it into the dryer when my machine-washed load was done. After I took it out of the dryer, I noticed that the front seemed a bit shorter, shoulders were tighter, and the back seam (where the ruffles were gathered) went up 2 inches! I was understandably aghast.

What I didn't know is that rayon has low wet strength, which means it's highly unstable when wet. Therefore, it is susceptible to shrinkage (as much as 10%) or stretchage (is that even a word?). Some types of rayons (like viscose) were manufactured to have better wet strength than others. Apparently the fibers in my top didn't fall into that group.

Take home lesson #1: read the label to figure out what the fibers are, then do a quick Google search on the properties of those fibers. It might be helpful to sample a few sites, since even expert opinions can vary. I found this site to be simple and informative, and I've included the link so that I can reference it in the future. If I had known about the low wet weight issue, I would have carefully dried my top like I would with cashmere sweaters (with a towel, then lay flat) instead of employing expedient yet detrimental methods. If the fibers are really, really unsuitable for water and/or your piece of clothing costs a lot of money, it's better not to take the risk.

After feeling a bit of outrage, I was determined to unshrink this thing. If the fibers can both shrink and stretch, I was sure that I can stretch it back out. I followed TBF's advice on unshrinking a wool sweater (using lukewarm water and hair conditioner) with a few of my own modifications. After I squeezed out water, the top was really heavy, so I gently tugged at it lengthwise. Then, I used a towel to blot out the excess water. The top was laid flat to dry for a few hours, subjected to a few more gentle stretchings over time. When it was mostly dried but still a little damp, I decided to let gravity do my bidding. The top half of the top was flat on the drying rack, but I pushed the bottom half over the edge so that it hangs free. An hour or two later, I let the top half hang down instead of the bottom. By the next day, my top was back to more or less normal size, as shown in the pictures above.

Take Home Lesson #2: If it shrank, don't panic! Do some online research and act quickly.

I consider myself pretty lucky, since not all mistakes are reversable. On that same day, which I should dub the "unluckiest laundry day ever," my Joie pants also shrunk in the dryer. It's now a good fit and has a better length (which is what I wanted), but unfortunately the outside seams are all bunched up. I'll try to simultaneously iron and stretch later, but I don't know if it's gonna work. I'll let you know when I have time to try it.