Woman's 'lifesaving' trick to salvage jumpers that have shrunk in the wash

16 December 2023 , 12:14

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This hack could salvage shrunken jumpers (Stock Photo) (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

This hack to salvage shrunken jumpers has been deemed "lifesaving".

Taking a favourite jumper that's perfectly comfortable and softly worn out of the washing machine only to find that it has shrunk during the cycle can be incredibly frustrating, and can leave you disappointed and unable to wear it again.

This new hack from a content creator can help salvage jumpers that have shrunk in the wash and it's been called absolutely "lifesaving" by those who have tried it. It will likely become your go-to solution for when a dry clean only clothing item accidentally gets included with the rest of the normal laundry.

The content creator - Violet Witchel - posted a video explaining exactly how to return your shrunken jumper to its former glory on her TikTok account: @violet.cooks.

The hack has quickly garnered over 1600 likes and takes minimal effort. In the video, Violet showed a jumper of hers that had disappointingly shrunk in the wash, but in the short clip she managed to get it back to its original size.

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"If you accidentally put a wool or cotton cashmere sweater in the wash on hot and it shrinks up, this is my trick to get it back to normal. Start by super generously spraying in wrinkle releaser, this will loosen the fibres. Then take a steamer. Put it on the highest setting and steam with tension." the content creator explained.

Violet demonstrated this by holding tightly to the bottom of her damaged jumper, with the tension of her grip pulling it downwards, and initially moving the steamer downwards in vertical lines from the top at a slow pace.

"You want to go slowly and repeat this process in all four directions," she explained. "It seems counterintuitive to add more heat, but trust me it works". Violet then showed in her video the difference between the left-hand side of the jumper which she had done this process on, compared to the right, which was still shrunken.

The left-hand side hung much lower down than the right, indicating that it had returned to its original size before it had been damaged in the washing cycle. Violet added that to finish the repair job off you need to "Repeat that process on all sides of the sweater and in all directions, and give it a good shake once you're done."

A number of TikTok users said they would be trying the hack for themselves. One commenter said, "what a great idea", in response to what Violet posted.

Another said that they would be trying it out themselves after her "sweet daughter" had shrunk her clothes while trying to help her out.

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Emma Mackenzie