Laundry - what am I doing wrong?

[december2020]

DC's socks and trousers keep shrinking in the wash - what on earth am I doing wrong?

Even with newly purchased clothes, I follow the washing instructions, wash them at 30 degrees, don't use the tumble drier (wanted to eliminate the drier being the cause) and hang them up to dry.

I can visibly see they've shrunk because the newly purchased trousers from the same place and same size have visibly longer trouser legs and the socks are much larger.

What am I doing wrong? I can't work it out!

Or have the materials become cheaper and things are just prone to shrinkage now?

Lots of things just shrink. Anything of mine which is heavy cotton/I care about shrinking I don't tumble dry and often wash on cold. I wouldn't bother with socks though unless they were wool! Modern clothes are rubbish, I'm sorry. It's absolutely soul destroying knowing that about 1/3 of what you buy won't make it past the first wash without being ruined.

Could your machine temperature be wrong? As in you set to 30 but the machine thermometer is faulty?

I hear you

I use a fairly cold wash now 20degrees and what I do is give a quick rub with a vanish bar before hand to try and save the clothes being ruined by heat

I read recently that a lot of fabric in the "olden days" was pre shrunk before being made up into clothes so this happened less. Can't apply to socks though, surely?
So maybe to counter this we need to buy a size bigger/longer? I feel your pain, it is frustrating.

Where are you buying from? Most clothes are made from fabric this is not pre washed, so first wash, it shrinks. Some fabrics shrink with every wash.

I make my own clothes and have to take shrinkage into consideration when buying.

I just pull them for a second once they're dry and they seem to stretch back into shape