Shrinkage of Textiles

Shrinkage of Textiles 

reduction in the size of textiles after washing, soaking, or treatment with moist heat; the articles may be reduced in linear dimensions, area, or volume.

Shrinkage may be due to a variety of factors: a loss of elasticity in the material itself or in its constituent fibers and threads, which have been stretched during spinning, weaving, or finishing; an increase in the thickness of threads and fibers owing to swelling; and straightening of one set of threads, such as the warp threads, which bends the threads in another system and shrinks the material in that direction. Shrinkage causes the size of garments, footwear, and headwear to change during wear, which spoils the appearance and sometimes makes the item unsuitable for further use.

The shrinkage of textiles can be reduced by the use of low-shrinkage fibers and threads, the special processing of textiles to reduce the swelling of dampened fibers, the pre-shrinking of finished textiles on cloth-shrinking apparatus, and decating. Sections of fabrics are sometimes deliberately shrunk during garment manufacture by treatment with moist heat; for example, tucks may be pressed with a steam iron.

I. S. MOROZOVSKAIA