How to fluff a jacket after washing?

Products made from natural wool take pride of place in any person’s wardrobe. Soft and surprisingly warm pants and skirts, jackets and sweaters do not wrinkle, get dirty little and, with proper care, can “reliably” last for more than ten years. Therefore, it becomes very annoying when a new woolen item sharply decreases in size after washing. You can restore a deformed product using ammonia, hair conditioner, hydrogen peroxide, or by mechanical stretching.

How to restore wool?

In cases where the shrunken wool is not very deformed, you can use this method of restoring it:

Mix water and ammonia in equal proportions.
Soak the item in the resulting solution for 120 minutes.
Afterwards, rinse well, using a special wool conditioner.

1 Jul.
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Getting rid of pellets

As a rule, pills appear on woolen items of poor quality. This does not mean that the yarn was somehow made incorrectly or that the fabric was defective, but that the cheapest types of wool, consisting mainly of guard and dead hairs, were used to make the material.

There are several ways to get rid of pellets:

If the item is very shaggy, loosely knitted, and the pellets are large, the easiest way to cut them off is with sharp scissors with a thin blade. It is important to remain vigilant so as not to accidentally cut the threads.
In other cases, you should use a special clipper for cutting pellets. It is inexpensive and very convenient.
You can also use a regular safety razor - the more blades it has and the sharper they are, the easier it is to get the product in order. In this case, there is a danger of damaging clothing, so you should not use the razor by pressing it too hard against the woven or knitted fabric.
If there are few pellets, nothing will prevent you from removing them manually, simply tearing them off the threads. This process is somewhat reminiscent of plucking a chicken.

In the future, so that the pellets form in smaller quantities and less actively, you should use special detergents designed for wool for washing. They add components that help soften the fibers and reduce their tangling.

Rinse

This is a very important procedure for caring for wool products. If rinsing occurs in a machine, then any suitable conditioner must be added to a special tank. It will soften the water, protect the item from wrinkles, and also give the item a light, pleasant smell.

To rinse with your hands, you can also use wool conditioner, or you can remember your grandmother’s trick and dilute glycerin in a basin at the rate of half a tablespoon per 5 liters of water. Rinsing in such a solution protects things no worse than store-bought detergent.

Effective ways to wash cotton so that it shrinks

Cotton items, or as they are also called, cotton items, tend to sag a little during any wash.

If you are looking for a way to wash a cotton product so that it shrinks and noticeably shrinks, we offer several effective methods:

Making a T-shirt or T-shirt fit is easy. Place the clothes in the machine, use the “Cotton” option and set the temperature to 60°C. The item will not be deformed, but will become slightly denser. Use only a high-quality detergent that will preserve the color of the clothes, because high temperature has a bad property - it removes the color of the fabric.
Another effective option for reducing the size of a cotton T-shirt is to soak it for a while in water that is almost boiling, and then transfer it to a container with cold liquid.
To shrink items, simply place it in a container with almost boiling water, wait 10 minutes, remove the items and send them to dry in the usual way.
The Cotton mode in the machine allows you to select a high temperature (up to 95°C). Program and adjust this option before washing your cotton item to allow it to shrink.
If the shirt needs to shrink, after hand or machine washing and proper drying, iron it using steam.
Make the most of the ways you can use your washing machine. How to wash cotton so that it shrinks? If the fabric is thick enough and does not stretch (does not contain synthetic rubber microfibers), then send it for washing using the maximum temperature and maximum number of revolutions. This method will be even more effective if you dry the product correctly in a horizontal position.

Ironing

Typically, wool items are not prone to wrinkles, so they do not need to be ironed. But if such a need arises, then you need to iron the fabric from the wrong side only after it has completely dried. When ironing, be sure to use a damp cloth and check the information label again. If the iron does not have a “wool” setting, the temperature of the iron should be low.

By the way, ironing can help if the item, despite following all the rules, still shrinks. To do this, the wool needs to be slightly wetted and ironed through a damp cloth, stretching the fibers to the desired size. Using this method, be sure to dry the item with an iron until there is no moisture, otherwise all your efforts will go down the drain.

Clothes made from wool never go out of fashion and serve their owners for a long time. Yes, woolen items require special care, but for those who know and follow the simple rules, this matter does not seem so difficult.

Tricky Tips

In addition to all the basic recommendations, experienced housewives usually use a number of useful tips that allow them to preserve the original beautiful appearance of woolen products for a long time.

Stains from juice or berries are much easier to remove if you briefly sprinkle them with salt first.
lipstick off clothes with rubbing alcohol.
To reduce the likelihood of colored items shedding and soften the water a little, you can add two teaspoons of vinegar essence.
Adding a couple of drops of ammonia will help significantly soften the fabric .
To effectively remove contaminants, it is not necessary to use household chemicals. Folk remedies can also cope with this - mustard powder, potato or bean broth. You can use lemon powder for whitening
If, despite following all the recommendations, your clothes still shrink, you should not be upset or re-wash your favorite sweater. You can sprinkle it with a little water and iron it, gently stretching the fabric.
Woolen clothes should be stored in small piles in the closet; larger and heavier items of clothing should be placed downwards.
If you place a few paper napkins soaked in lavender oil in your closet, your clothes will always smell nice. This measure also reliably protects against moths.

All of these tips help you successfully wash woolen products and avoid possible unpleasant consequences. If there are some concerns, you can always entrust the cleaning of a delicate item to professionals.

What to do if a woolen item shrinks?

When, after washing, it turns out that the item has become two or three sizes smaller, there is only one thing left to do - burst into bitter tears and give this sweater (dress, hat, suit) to someone for whom it will fit. Or give it to the dolls. Or throw it away if the situation is completely stalemate.

The fact is that wool is the natural hair of animals and consists mainly of proteins. The most famous of them is collagen. Under the influence of high temperature, protein denaturation occurs, as a result of which it loses its usual properties. Stretching woolen clothes that have shrunk after washing in hot water is about the same as turning a hard-boiled egg raw. By the way, so far only scientists from the University of California at Irvine have succeeded in the egg trick, so those who find their item priceless can try their luck by contacting the chemical laboratory there.

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If the item is not made of pure wool, but with an admixture of cotton or synthetic fibers, and was washed at a temperature slightly higher than 30°C, you can try to return it to its original size in this way:

Soak in cold water. If the product has shrunk in the shoulders and neck, it should be completely soaked with water, and if the mentioned areas have not changed, they should be left dry.
Wrap in a terry towel to remove excess moisture. To speed up this process, you can blot the item with light squeezing movements. It is strictly forbidden to twist it.
After 7–10 minutes, the item is laid out on a flat surface and begins to be gently stretched in the horizontal and vertical directions. You cannot stretch it vertically - the clothes will lose their shape. Stretching the shoulders and neckline if they remain dry is not necessary and even harmful.
When the item reaches the desired size, it is hung on a hanger and left to dry in a cool, well-ventilated area. Do not hang near heating devices or other heat sources.

This method is only suitable for knitted items. Products made from woven fabric cannot be restored under any circumstances after shrinkage.

How to stretch a shrunken viscose item. Let's act tougher

If following the simplest tips you cannot save a viscose item, you will have to resort to “improved” methods. Experienced housewives advise not to get upset, but to adopt backup options.

A solution of soda, table vinegar, a hair dryer, or a weight suspended from the hem can help return the shape of a shrunken viscose item.

You can try to return the product to its original appearance.

Prepare a solution of soda (in proportions of 1 tsp per glass of water), moisten a piece of gauze in it. Then you should put a gauze cloth on your clothes and run an iron over it with a steam generator setting.
Moisten the item in clean water, then treat it with a similar soda solution. Next, you need to roll a viscose blouse or dress into a tube and carefully pull its edges. Then the thing unfolds and twists again, but in the opposite direction. The stretching procedure is repeated. At the end of the manipulations, the product should be rinsed and dried.
Take a cotton sheet and wet it with a soda solution (one teaspoon of soda per 300 ml of water). The sheet is placed on a horizontal surface and straightened out. The shrunken viscose item should be placed on the canvas and covered with the free edge of the sheet. Wait two hours, then rinse the clothes and dry them.
Stretch the completely dampened viscose sweater over the back of a chair, box, and dry with a hairdryer.
Use a weight. This method is suitable when the item has decreased in length. If the hem is shortened, the bottom of the underwear is “grabbed” with an elastic band, where a light weight (400 grams) is then hung. Similar actions can be performed with shrunken sleeves or shorter trousers. In this position, the item can hang for a maximum of an hour, otherwise the bottom will stretch too much and be uneven.
Moisten the viscose with a vinegar solution (100 ml of vinegar and half a liter of water). The item should be stretched out on a hard surface and secured on four sides with heavy objects. After 30 minutes, you need to rinse the product.