It is possible for a dry cleaner to shrink clothes?

[seaglass]

I swear these pants fit me 2 weeks ago but I wore them to work today and they are too tight around the waist and too short. For a moment I thought maybe they weren't even mine.:wtf:

I know I didn't grow or gain weight over the last 2 weeks, so they must have used their shrinking chemicals, right?

[Broken_Hero]

1. I'm not sure

but I do know one thing, they can't get the dog piss smell out of clothes...i spent 18 bucks, trying to fix my wife's dry clean business suit blazer...

[Marnieworld]

2. I think so

Years ago I got mud splashed from a car onto my wool coat and when I got it back from the cleaners I thought it was smaller too. I'd like to know I wasn't crazy if anyone knows for sure.

[KurtNYC]

3. Looks like "yes"

Is there any way to determine how much a garment will shrink?

Any fabric can be expected to shrink about 1 to 3 percent, even dry clean only garments. Manufactured fibers will shrink the least, and natural fibers the most. The shrinkage of natural fibers is often controlled during the manufacturing process, by washing and preshrinking the fabric before it is made into a garment.


Natural fibers which are not preshrunk, and some manufactured fibers such as rayon and acetate (both of which are made using natural plant matter as part of their ingredients) can shrink significantly...even several sizes.

http://www.fabriclink.com/Carefaq.html

And 3% of 33-inches is ~1-inch.

[seaglass]

4. Thanks for that. I really thought it was me and I started

panicking. I wonder why I've had these pants for at least 7 years and they never shrunk before when I brought them to the cleaners.

[China_cat]

5. You bet acetate will shrink in dry cleaning

like 100%. (Perchlorethylene, the drycleaning solution, dissolves acetate)

[LeftyMom]

6. Certainly

One thing people often don't realize is that in addition to the solvents and stuff dry cleaners do use water on some items, because it's the best way to remove some problems (sweat for example.) If the pants weren't cleaned with water before or if they were steam pressed for the first time that may be the problem.

[seaglass]

7. I think that's it. They have a crease in them and they never

made a crease in them before so they must have steam pressed them. Unfortunately I couldn't really afford any shrinkage with these pants.