I shrunk my £100 Sweaty Betty jumper

[SingingSands]

I am absolutely livid with myself. Obviously too distracted at the time and had somehow bundled it up with similar coloured towels, so it was washed on a 60c wash

It was brand new, a lovely green wool jumper, and a Christmas present from DH. It's now very small and has felted.

I've actually had a little cry at my stupidity and bloody awful waste of money.

Do I own up or just quietly shove it in the back of the wardrobe? He'd honestly never notice... Oh god, now I'm deceitful as well as inept!

try these

There's no undoing felting, it'll be stiffer now?

I've shrunk and felted a couple wool nappy covers but they were cheap-ish and I guess might work for a smaller baby so not a total loss yet.

Sorry OP, buy a similar one that's more washable?

Thank you @FlyingByTheSeatof I might try that, it could stretch out, but I don't think I can undo the felting.

My sympathies
I don't buy wool any more for that very reason. I've done it too many times.

Showed it to DD. She snorted and suggested I turn it into a cushion.

Ooh thanks for the link Flying. I did the same to a White Company jumper recently, washed it at 40 which turned out not to be ok. Although have now given it to DD (age 6) as it's the right size for her

www.wikihow.com/Fix-Felted-Wool

Good luck and let us know if you manage to get it into a wearble state.

Yup, I did it to a lovely striped Sea Salt jumper. In with the regular 40 degree wash by mistake and now it fits my 8 yo. Only she won’t wear it because it’s felted and too scratchy. Yet I still can’t bring myself to throw it away as I remember how much it cost so it sits in my drawer as a testament to my carelessness.

Put it in a bucket of cold water and a whole bottle of hair conditioner. The next day take it out and stretch it out. Keep doing this until it looks like it's original size. Happened to my colleague, who was amazed when this tip actually worked!

I did what @Beautiful3 suggests when I shrunk a Hush jumper and it worked. I recommend Aussie 3 Minute Miracle

@Mrsfrumble

Yup, I did it to a lovely striped Sea Salt jumper. In with the regular 40 degree wash by mistake and now it fits my 8 yo. Only she won’t wear it because it’s felted and too scratchy. Yet I still can’t bring myself to throw it away as I remember how much it cost so it sits in my drawer as a testament to my carelessness.

I did exactly the same thing with my favourite stripey Seasalt jumper.

Gutted

Oh god, I feel your pain.

I will raise you a cashmere swishy dressing gown. A glorious thing I loved to death.

Felted. My fault.

Well I've never heard of this expression felted before. What does that mean/look like?

This is probably not going to help at all but is it the Elevate jumper? I nearly bought it but then returned it as a lot of the reviews said they'd followed the hand washing rules to the letter and yet it still shrunk so I think it was potentially doomed regardless and may have been a faulty batch? Just mentioning in case it's worth giving them a call.

I did this to the wool regimental scarf my DH was given by his grandad.
You can make a lot of nice things from boiled wool fabric. Gutted for you though.

@wishywashywoowoo70

Well I've never heard of this expression felted before. What does that mean/look like?

You know what a lovely posh knitted wool jumper looks and feels like? You can see the individual stitches and see that it’s made of a single strand of wool.

And you know what the felt that children use for craft activities looks and feels like? Just like a continuous thick flat mat with no gaps.

Well if you wash your lovely jumper at too hot a temperature then that’s what it turns into. It also shrinks at least two sizes.

I owned a lovely wool cardigan with enormous buttons. When I accidentally shrunk it in the wash the buttons were bigger than the fucking cardigan.

Bin it and pretend it never happened. Keep looking on eBay for a second hand one and when one comes up, buy it and enjoy. Sorted.

Ha ha thank you Findme.

I don't know whether to feel sorry for myself not ever had an expensive wool jumper now so I would have known this.

Just a quick tip...

It's important to stress that it's not just temperature that causes felting. It's also the washing machine motion/spin speed as the garment washes. The fibres rubbing together is what causes the felting. You need to select a low rpm cycle.

For most of my wool jumpers I use a 400 rpm delicate cycle with hand wash detergent, then when it's finished I select an additional spin at 800 (as long as the items aren't too delicate). I never select a temperature above 30 degrees.