Clothes always shrink when dry-cleaned

[Anonymous]

My clothes always get shrunk when they are dry-cleaned. It doesn't matter which cleaner I take them too, it always happens. What in the dry-cleaning process causes this? What do others do about this--buy clothing a little big? I am tired of having nice clothes that I can no longer wear!

[Anonymous]

I've never experienced that. It shouldn't happen, That's why clothes are dry cleaned, because if you wash them they will shrink. It's very strange that it keeps happening to you.

[Anonymous]

This really shouldn't happen, I would really look closely at the dry cleaners you have tried, make sure they do it in house and aren't sending them out to the same parent cleaning company (in a couple of places two different drop off points can have the same parent cleaning company). I would also pick one piece and measure it from underarm to underarm before dry cleaning and then measure it afterward. If it has shrunk and you can prove it, they should compensate you for that.

Also realize that just because the label says dry clean only doesn't mean that the object can't be hand washed, basically manufacturers today cover themselves by saying "dry clean only" when it isn't necessarily the best way to clean the object. Personally, I hand wash all animal fibers (wool, alpaca, cashmere, etc.) except silk, or if the object has a lining (pants).

[Anonymous]

They are probably laundering the clothes rather than dry cleaning them.

[Anonymous]

This has definitely happened to me, but has only happened to sweaters, most notably cashmere, and over a period of time. It has never been noticeable after one dry cleaning but over a period of years I have several sweaters that have gotten too small (sleeves have gotten progressively shorter) and I can't really wear them any more.

[Anonymous]

I've had this problem too, esp. with cashmere sweaters and blouses with a little stretch in them. Also, I'm pretty sure they're not laundering the clothing.

[Anonymous]

This has happened to me. Wool dress pants shrunk so that the lining hung longer than hem of pants. I got them to reimburse me.

[Anonymous]

I've never had that problem, but I've certainly had clothes look really beat up after a dry-cleaning or ironed in a way that almost changes the style. And I just got tired of paying a huge amount of money to have my clothes ruined.

So now use Drycleaner in a bag or Dryel on most of my dry-clean only clothes. I find it works well as long as I hang up my clothes when I get home (to prevent too many wrinkles). Check for spots and take those out first (you just dab the the clothes with the cleaning sheet), and then hang up again as soon as they come out of the dryer.

And as one poster mentioned, a lot of clothes that say dryclean only can be washed on gentle.

And I look for clothes that are easy to take care of and iron when needed (stay away from lots of tiny pleats)

[Anonymous]

OMG no way

[Anonymous]

This has happened to me several times with pants and sweaters. And, even one skirt where the skirt was shorter than the lining.

I'm wondering why it happens also.

I thought I was just gaining weight, but then I realized that the clothes were most definitely slowly shrinking!

[Anonymous]

My father used to complain about that all the time - the dry cleaner shrunk his clothes, so the neck was too tight on his shirts, or the waist was too tight on his pants. Turned out that he was the one changing size, not his clothes.