# stretching shrunken linen...



## Thom Browne's Schooldays (Jul 29, 2007)

I have a cheap, secondhand OTR linen suit. It's nothing special, but I enjoy wearing the thing.

Trouble is, I accidentally wore it into a swimming pool last week.

Thankfully jacket is fine, but the pants shrunk up a bit.
I lost an inch or so of length, and as the trousers are 3/4 lined they now have a slight flare to them.
I have no hem to let out (and as I understand you can't let linen out anyways).
Is there any way of re-wetting and stretching the fabric out?


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## Tomasso (Aug 17, 2005)

Thom Browne's Schooldays said:


> the pants shrunk up a bit. I lost an inch or so of length


I wouldn't think an inch or two would bother you, considering your moniker.........


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

To the best of my knowledge, shruken linen stays that way.


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## a tailor (May 16, 2005)

make the trousers into shorts.


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## deanayer (Mar 30, 2008)

Linen seems to make a one way trip in the shrinking department. Without any additional material you may well be stuck. Irish linen was used in WWI to cover plane wings and the way they got it to adhere tightly to the wooden wing frames was to WET IT. That should give you an idea of the persistence of shrunken linen. Some linen items come "pre-shrunk" . If the care tag say "dry clean only" chances are it was never pre-shrunk if it says you can wash it then it may have been pre-shrunk (some of the fabric care experts may chime in here....). If the tag on your suit says "dry clean only" you are probably all done. You are now looking at a new odd-jacket and a pair of shorts that you may combine on your next trip to Bermuda otherwise I dont think you will be wearing the two pieces together any time soon.


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## Cardinals5 (Jun 16, 2009)

Have the trousers slimmed (15-16" at hem) by your tailor so they have no break - it's a good look for hot weather.


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## Holdfast (Oct 30, 2005)

Thom Browne's Schooldays said:


> Is there any way of re-wetting and stretching the fabric out?


Pretty unlikely to be honest.

But you're in good company. If you watch Die Another Day, you'll see Brosnan's linen suit suffers exactly the same trouser problem when his suit gets soaked in several shots during Bond's escape from the clinic in Cuba.


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## Thom Browne's Schooldays (Jul 29, 2007)

Thanks for the advice all.



Tomasso said:


> I wouldn't think an inch or two would bother you, considering your moniker.........


It's a bit tongue in cheek, Tom Brown's Schooldays was a childhood favorite of mine.
I have nothing against Thom, I don't wear clothes in his style (nor can I afford to wear his clothes), but I admire him for his ability to drum up hearty outrage on internet clothing sites.


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## JerseyJohn (Oct 26, 2007)

In my experience, once something shrinks, it stays shrunk. In the old days, people used to wash something and then pin it out wet to keep it from shrinking. When I was a toddler, our old Newark apartment building in the late 40's actually had a big pin-covered rack down in the basement next to the giant old coal-fired, asbestos-coated steam furnace (which scared me to death) for the tenants to use for lace cotton curtains and the like. I doubt if it would work for a suit.


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