Shrinkage is the subject of many customer complaints. Some customers may complain because they believe the cleaner will find it difficult either to dispute the claim that the garment has shrunk or to disown responsibility because the garment has shrunk while in the business’s care.
In practice, the cleaner can often work out whether the garment has shrunk and sometimes the degree of shrinkage can be estimated quite precisely. Even if an item has shrunk, the cleaner should only take responsibility if the problem is the result of an error in processing rather than a feature of the fabric or of incorrect care labelling.
To complicate the problems, most fabrics do shrink in drycleaning. This is because most cloth is under tension when it receives its final treatment before being rolled for despatch to the clothing maker’s factory. This results in a slight stretch being set into the material and this set survives make-up into the finished product and normal wear.
British Standards recognise relaxation shrinkage and provide methods for manufacturers to check how much this will be for a range.
Unfortunately there is not yet a performance standard that will define how much a tailored jacket or other garment may shrink in cleaning.
Modern cleaners need to have all of this information at their fingertips when discussing shrinkage with an irate customer.
Wool coat suffers felting
Fault: The owner of this red coat wool coat complained that it had shrunk and was unwearable and also that the wool felt harsh and had matted. The cleaner tried to stretch the garment back to size but found it had little elasticity and crackled audibly under tension. The garment had been cleaned with a full load of wool coats but no other coat had been affected in this way.
Cause: These symptoms point conclusively to felting shrinkage caused by mechanical action while the coat was still damp. As this was the only affected item, it must have been the only coat that had been cleaned while slightly damp. It may have been in a shower just before it was handed in.
Responsibility: The cleaner is responsible for ensuring that wool garments are bone dry before cleaning to avoid both felting shrinkage and greying. This applies even if the coat was damp when it was brought in as a consumer would not be expected to understand the importance of this. Such knowledge is part of the cleaner’s craft.
Rectification: Felting shrinkage cannot be rectified. In future all hair-fibre garments (including angora, cashmere and mohair) should be aired for a couple of hours in a warm, dry place before machine drycleaning even if they do not feel damp. These hair fibres can hold up to up to 15% or more of their own weight in moisture and still feel dry.
Assessing the shrinkage
Fault: The owner of this patterned jacket noted excessive shrinkage in the girth after drycleaning.
Shrinkage assessment: The cleaner noted that although the front panels were stabilised with a fusible interlining, this had not rippled or bubbled so he reasoned that the fronts could not have shrunk. When he measured the pattern repeat on the unsupported fabric used for the back of the garment, he found the pattern repeat length to be identical to that of the supported fronts. The garment has probably relaxed slightly, rather than shrunk significantly.
Responsibility: If the garment no longer fits this is probably because the original fit was snug and not because the garment had shrunk.
Rectification: The garment should be re-pressed with skilful use of steam, tension and vacuum to recover any relaxation. The cleaner should take responsibility for doing this.
High thread tension makes embroidery pucker
Fault: This decorative bedcover shrank severely in washing and there was extensive puckering along the embroidery.
Cause: This is an example of marked differential shrinkage and the embroidery thread has suffered much more than the fabric.
Responsibility: If the cover had been labelled for laundering the maker would have been to blame because the fault has been caused by using much too high a thread tension for the embroidery.
In this case the cover was unlabelled so the cleaner had to take the responsibility.
Rectification: None.
Suit seam is badly puckered
Fault: This suit was in generally good condition when it came out of the machine but the customer noticed a deep pucker down the front of each armhole seam that had not been there before.
Cause: When the armhole seam is assembled, several layers of fabric and padding have to be stitched together, which involves a great deal of tension. The garment is then formed on a special body former, an expensive piece of equipment, which shapes the three dimensional chest/upper arm construction, stretching the seam and removing any pucker in the process. Drycleaning relaxes this set and the flat seam usually has some puckering. The degree varies from garment to garment.
Responsibility: The garment maker is responsible for the severity of the pucker that re-appears at this point. The drycleaner is responsible for re-pressing the garment to minimise any pucker and most experienced pressers can remove it entirely.
Rectification: The armhole seam assembly needs to be softened and made pliable with a little free steam and then stretched and shaped, working over the nose of the table or buck. Mushrooms or presser’s bolts may be needed to get a perfect result and it is then essential to maintain the tension with the seam in the correct shaped position whilst applying vacuum until the assembly is dried, cooled and set correctly. Then when tension is released it will be found that the assembly is pucker-free.
Silk cracks and creases
Fault: The cleaner had not been not been able to press out several fine creases in the skirt of this silk dress. When the owner tried it on she found that the dress had shrunk in places and would not hang correctly.
Cause: Parts of the dress were damp when it was drycleaned so the mechanical action in drycleaning has cracked the silk leading to tight creases that cannot be pressed out. Some of the longer creases were formed before the item was cleaned as the damp silk has been squashed in some way, probably when the wearer sat down.
Responsibility: The person who let the fabric get wet and then creased is responsible for the longer creases. The cleaner is responsible for the fine crack creases.
Rectification: This crack creasing is so severe that it cannot be corrected. For the future the cleaner must ensure that silk is bone dry when it goes into the drycleaning machine and this applies whatever the cause for the silk becoming damp.
