Woolen sweaters are frequently worn and washed in autumn and winter. Because improper washing causes shrinkage of sweaters, some customers bring their shrunk sweaters caused by their own washing to laundry shops for recovery. Even some laundry shops may cause sweaters to shrink due to their own negligence. So, what are the reasons for the shrinkage of sweaters, and how can they be restored?
Three Culprits For the Shrinkage of the Sweaters
- Entanglement Caused by Machine Washing
During the washing process, the inner drum of the washing machine continuously rotates, and friction between clothes and clothes and between clothes and the drum wall is frequent. This mechanical action greatly increases the friction coefficient of wool fibers and generates static electricity. Thus, the cuticles (unique scaly structure of wool fibers) on the surface of wool fibers entangle with each other. Over time, the originally soft sweater becomes increasingly shrunken and tight, and its size has a noticeable reduction. The phenomenon is commonly known as felting.
When facing this phenomenon, people can choose industrial washing machines with adjustable mechanical forces or wet cleaning machines. Kingstar Wet Cleaning Machine SHS-2025P can be set to a minimum rotation speed of 15 rpm. It adopts a gentle mechanical force and effectively prevents fiber entanglement and shrinkage when combined with professional wet-cleaning agents.
- Alkaline Detergent
Common laundry liquids and soaps are all alkaline detergents. Many sweaters are made of wool or wool-blend material. Woolen fibers, as a kind of protein fiber, greatly lose their strength in an alkaline environment and become brittle and easily damaged. Also, the alkaline environment will intensify the felting of fibers and cause relatively loosely arranged fabric fibers to entangle tightly with each other. This results in overall felting shrinkage of the sweater, a stiff hand feel, and loss of its original elasticity and fluffiness. As a result, it is recommended to use neutral detergents to wash sweaters and use specific detergents for pure wool.
Kingstar Wet Cleaning Machine SHS-2025P has an automatic chemical inlet that can be connected to various types of dispensers for adding liquid chemicals. Also, it is specially designed with a powder detergent box, which can be used to add powdered detergents. It can also be edited in the program. When in use, it is only needed to add detergents to the corresponding box before washing starts.
The powder detergent box of the Kingstar wet washing machine uses the siphon principle, which can add all detergents into the bucket without leaving any residue.
- Hand Washing
Some people think that careful hand washing and professional detergents for silk and wool can totally avoid the shrinkage of sweaters. In fact, even with gentle hand washing, the cuticles on the surface of wool fibers will still have directional movement when exposed to water and manual kneading, which causes slight shrinkage. For pure wool sweaters, the dimensional changes caused by this natural characteristic are often difficult to avoid completely.
Using professional wet cleaning equipment is a more scientific and reasonable washing method than hand washing. Kingstar Wet Cleaning Machine SHS-2025P can be set to a rotation speed of 15 rpm with a run-stop ratio of 3s/27s. It has a washing and soaking mode with extremely gentle mechanical action. In addition, professional wet-cleaning agents can protect the fibers and effectively reduce the shrinkage rate.
Recovery Methods
If the shrinkage of sweaters happens accidentally, how can the sweaters be enlarged?
After knowing the reasons for the shrinkage, we can solve the problems accordingly. The traditional method relies on physical stretching. The effect is limited and has high risks. Nowadays, with wool fiber relaxant for sweaters, the whole process becomes easy, highly efficient, and does not damage clothes. High-quality wool fiber relaxant’s effective components can mildly penetrate the inner of the wool fibers and affect the scaly structure. This effectively reduces the friction between fibers and removes the entanglement. Also, it helps restore the softness and elasticity of the fibers and prepares the best condition for following physical stretching to achieve a safe and even sizing recovery.
- Step 1: Prepare lukewarm water
Get a basin which is large enough to fit the sweater → pour in 3-4 liters of lukewarm water → strictly keep the temperature between 30°C and 40°C.
Hot water may cause further felting of the wool fibers. Cold water will compromise the effectiveness of the product.
- Step 2: Add the stretching agents
Add one capful (about 15 grams) of wool fiber relaxant to warm water → gently stir by hand → The agent is fully dissolved in the water.
- Step 3: Soaking and gentle turning
Immerse the shrunken sweater completely in the solution → ensure that all parts are covered by liquid for 20 minutes→ turn the sweater up and down from time to time to ensure even handling (Do not rub it vigorously)
- Gentle stretching and finishing
After soaking, the fibers of the sweater in water have become soft and loose. At this point, people can hold the key parts of the sweater (the shoulders, hem, and sleeves) with their hands, and gently and evenly stretch them along the warp and weft directions of the clothes. Then they will be surprised to find that the sweater is gradually returning to its original size. After processing, people should take out the sweater, gently squeeze out the excess water by hand (do not twist it forcefully), and then do the regular dehydration.
- Fine Shaping and Steam Ironing
If people want to enlarge the sweater’s size again or make precise adjustments to some areas (overly short sleeves), this process should be done when the dehydrated clothes is not completely dry.
Two people are required to coordinate the process:
One person should operate a garment steamer at full steam output, and spray steam evenly and closely onto the areas that need stretching so as to fully heat, moisten, and soften the fibers.
The other person should simultaneously stretch the sweater gently but firmly in the desired direction.
After that, people lay the sweater flat on a drying rack for air-drying. Or, they can use a low-temperature steam setting of an iron on a vacuum ironing table for shaping.
This step can greatly improve the durability of the size restoration and shaping effect.
Key Points
Before the operation, the materials and the shrinkage condition of the sweaters should be thoroughly known. Laundry shops should also know the usage requirements of the wool fiber relaxant and fully explain to the customers about the clothes that cannot be restored to their original state.
When handling special fabrics (cashmere, blended fabrics) or expensive sweaters, people should do a test on an inconspicuous part of the clothes.
When steam ironing is used, the iron should be kept at an appropriate distance from the clothes to avoid direct contact with high temperatures that may damage the fibers.
Conclusion
For laundry shops, mastering and applying this scientific sweater recovery method can greatly improve working efficiency, reduce the labor intensity of employees, and win customers’ long-term trust with the stable and excellent caring effects. This effectively solves the pain points of the core services in autumn and winter, and achieves the double improvement in service quality and operational profitability.
