Heavy cotton flannel shirts and shrinkage

[Guppy]

I love wearing heavyweight cotton flannel shirts in the winter months, but I always seem to have problems with the arms becoming too short after a few washings. What's the secret to keeping this from happening? I normally use cold water and dry them with medium heat. Is there any way to unshrink cotton?

Lately I've taken to hang drying, which I think will work, and may also result in a reduction of lint loss in the dryer screen, which should translate into longer garment life.

 

[ton312]

Shrinkage is never good...

 

[Michael A]

I love wearing heavyweight cotton flannel shirts in the winter months, but I always seem to have problems with the arms becoming too short after a few washings. What's the secret to keeping this from happening? I normally use cold water and dry them with medium heat. Is there any way to unshrink cotton?

Lately I've taken to hang drying, which I think will work, and may also result in a reduction of lint loss in the dryer screen, which should translate into longer garment life.

My understanding is that most shrinkage in cotton, wool too for that matter, occurs from the tumbling action of the dryer. So hang drying is a good start. Unlike wool, there is only a certain amount of shrink in cotton so if you get the tall sizes or find a company that still sells heavy flannels based on neck size and arm length, don't know if there are any, buy a longer sleeve length. It's possible that if you wet the sleeves and then hung the shirt by the sleeves and clipped a couple of small weights to the hem of the shirt that the sleeves might lengthen back out a bit, but I don't think I would count on it.

Michael

 

[AeroFan_07]

This is tricky. I agree with comments above, line drying (and preferably not in direct sunlight, to keep the heat to a minimum) does tend to help. I'm about a size 16.5 / 35-36 and that's hard to find in anything but a true dress shirt. Seems a lot of folks just assume an "XL" will fit, but actually a Large Long is a much better fit for me. Except with Carhartt, thier shirts are long enough in a standard size Large for me (6'1") and the Longs actually tend to be a bit too long. I've never had one of thier shirts shrink on me.

 

[ButteMT61]

Yeah, have this issue too, but I've found that the Woolrich (better shirts) are pretty decent. I've a 36"+ sleeve, and it's always an issue. But I just dry on low heat or hang. Once it's partially dry, I pull the sleeves by stepping on the cuff, and pulling the shirt up from the shoulder then let them finish drying.

Best thing is to find a brand that is better, length-wise and stick with them. The other option is to dry clean. I've done that too and it's OK. Since I wear something under most flannel/wool winter shirts, they don't need cleaning very often...

 

[Guppy]

This is a Field and Stream flannel that I've owned for a year, and as you can see the sleeve now rides a good 2 inches short. I can pull it down to my wrist bone, but it quickly makes its way back to this point, where it seems to prefer to be. I've owned a lot of heavy flannel shirts in my life, and they all seem to do this after a few washings/dryings.

 

[Superfluous]

I love wearing heavyweight cotton flannel shirts in the winter months, but I always seem to have problems with the arms becoming too short after a few washings. What's the secret to keeping this from happening? I normally use cold water and dry them with medium heat. Is there any way to unshrink cotton?

Lately I've taken to hang drying, which I think will work, and may also result in a reduction of lint loss in the dryer screen, which should translate into longer garment life.

You are not going to like my answer, but I dry clean everything in order to avoid shrinkage. I know that is blasphemy to die-hard denim heads and the like, but I had enough of the guessing game regarding post-wash dimensions and fit.

 

[Mich486]

I think a lot of the shrinkage is avoided if you just use the dryer to take out most of the damp and then line dry when still the garment is wet.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TREEMAN]

Wash in cold water, 5 min in dryer....hang it up, wear.....enjoy !!

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I wear a 35+ sleeve length and buy talls in 100% cotton shirts. I wash all my shirts on permapress setting and then dry on low for around ten or fifteen minutes until they are not dripping wet. I then put them on a broader wooden hangers and shape the collar and pocket flaps, etc and hang them in the shower to finish drying. No shrinkage and ironing not needed with this process. I was at a loss after my Wife died. It had been forty years since I had done my own washing. However the laundromat lady highly suggested this technique for not only all 100% cotton and flannel...but all shirts. 'Over drying' sets in wrinkles and also causes shrinkage that I suggest is then generally irreversible.
HD

 

[HoosierDaddy]

However..some very heavy cotton flannel which is often lined requires 'dry clean only' label for good reason.

 

[Peacoat]

Van's suggestion to partially dry for a few minutes and then hang to dry the rest of the way is the business.

 

[Fanch]

My wife washes my cotton shirts and denim jeans with cold wash setting and then gives to me to place on hangers to dry over the next 2-3 days. For absolutely no shrinkage whatsoever, @Superfluous solution of dry cleaning is the best option. Furthermore your clothes come back soft rather than stiff from washing and line drying.

 

[ButteMT61]

Van's suggestion to partially dry for a few minutes and then hang to dry the rest of the way is the business.

I also posted that. Not to compete but to confirm it works.

 

[Peacoat]

I also posted that. Not to compete but to confirm it works.

Yes, you did. Sorry for the slight.

 

[ButteMT61]

Yes, you did. Sorry for the slight.

Nah, my wording was so bad as to be easily missed, PC!

 

[Carlos840]

I have always washed everything at 30c (86f) and hung dry and never shrunk anything.
IMO dryers are evil, they shrink and wear out everything. What do you think lint is? Your clothes dying!

I do wash my jeans in the tub, but all my wool and cashmere jumpers go in the washing machine and they are fine.

 

[GHT]

Is there any way to unshrink cotton?

Loose weight. Sorry, I'm being flippant. You can't 'expand' any fabric once it's shrunk simply because the fabric's structure has changed.
What you can do though is to buy a slightly larger size than you need and let the garment shrink to size. As a student, it used to baffle me why so many of my cohorts would be sporting blue legs in the showers after sports. Not being a lover of denim I wasn't into, the then fashion of original Levis. Originals were notorious for shrinking, so in order to make sure that the jeans didn't shrink too far, you had to shrink them to fit, which I later learned meant, sitting in a bath tub of water, with your new jeans on. The idea being that they would shrink to your size and not beyond. The things that folk do in the name of fashion.

 

[handymike]

I've moved on from denim, and now only do this with leather jackets .

 

[Guppy]

Loose weight. Sorry, I'm being flippant. You can't 'expand' any fabric once it's shrunk simply because the fabric's structure has changed.

I bet someday we'll have nanobots that can unshrink fabric. My problem is always that the sleeves get about 4 inches too short, and feel like I'm wearing a 3/4 sleeve shirt, not that I need to lose weight.