Back from the shrink: How to rescue clothes that have shrunk in the wash

Shrinkage of clothes cannot always be reversed. But sometimes, with a bit of luck and a lot of steam, you may be able to restore shrunk items

Line-drying cares for most fabrics better than a standard electric dryer. Ensure your appliances don’t run for too long or you are literally cooking the fibres, leaving them taut and brittle. Picture: iStock

It happens to the best of us. We are working our way through a fresh load of clean laundry, untangling the slightly damp pile of T-shirts and socks to hang each garment out to dry, when among the twisted cotton jersey, we see the sleeve or cuff of something that absolutely should not have been washed in the machine.

We pull it from the pile, hold it with two hands in front of us and assess the damage: how much smaller did the combination of heat, moisture and movement make it?