Shrinkage and Smell from Dry Cleaning Normal?

akira181

We were getting windows replaced so figured it be a good time to get the curtains dry cleaned since they had to come down anyway and haven’t been cleaned since we got them over 5 years ago.

The curtains are cotton, made to measure numbers, as we couldn’t find anything long enough (3m) off-the-shelf for tenement bay windows. Needless to say, they were painfully expensive, but we needed curtains and expected them to last a long time, so we thought of it as an investment/present for our new flat.

We took the curtains and a 3 piece kilt to a well-reviewed and long standing dry cleaner in the area. They charged £8/kilo for curtains, coming to £96.  I called them a week later and they told me that “the curtains still had to be steamed, they’ll be ready in the afternoon”. I thought steaming dry cleaning was little odd, but I’ve never had anything dry cleaned before, so I don’t really know what’s normal.

Now that the curtains are back up, they’ve shrunk at least 15cm in length and maybe 5cm in width. Hard to tell with the width as I had to redo the pencil pleat, but the lining is now much longer than the front part and pokes out the bottom and also seems a little loose in width. The curtains also have a floral smell, like mild detergent, but the kilt set is completely odourless (made of wool, zero shrinkage).

I’m now wondering if they’ve wrecked my curtains by just sticking them in the washing machine or if this amount of shrinkage from dry cleaning is to be expected and I was just unaware and never warned?

DullGreyGuy

For clothes fabrics are normally preshrunk and so dry cleaning makes little difference and wet washing is limited too, though some high end denims say jeans will lose 1" length on their first wet wash. Fabrics for interiors are often not pre-shrunk and as such are at a higher risk of shrinkage even with dry cleaning.

3%-5% is stated as the acceptable for shrinkage on the first clean. How much hem do you have? The bespoke curtains we had made put a large bottom hem on them for this purpose so it could be let down after they were cleaned once. 

Cotton holds smells much more than wool and the wool of the clothing will have been pre-shrunk. 

akira181

The kilt was tailored too and has zero smell. Not even a hint. We got a double duvet machine washed and dried there too, I'll give that a sniff when I get home and see if they're similar in smell. Might provide some clues.

I'd have thought pre-shrinking wool would ruin the tartan pattern and make the texture all hard and scratchy. If the lines of the tartan aren't straight and parallel, it's very obvious that something's amiss. 

A kilt is 8/9 yards of wool, a set of curtains 3/4 yards maybe? The kilt maker stands to lose a lot more material than a curtain maker pre-shrinking material.

If you include the shrinkage in width, I'm closer to the 8% mark at least. The hem is around 5 or 6cm if memory serves but it's been folded over and gently rubbing the carpet for 5 years. If I get it let down, there'll likely be a visible wear line.

Kinda feels like I've paid someone to wreck something unnecessarily expensive with little to no warning.

twopenny

It's preferable that you should have been warned first. I was so still a problem but I was able to make the decision.

I come from a time when we used to make our own curtains which was a lot cheaper then and you had to wash the fabric at least once to get the shrinkage before making.
I used to be reminded by the retailer ( my friend) to allow extra fabric.

I had the same problem with some I made and didn't do the wash first.
I dropped the entire hem and using a bias tape to finish off the hem with max length. You can get all sorts of iron on tapes now that should do the trick. Just find a good independent fabric shop for advice.

You'll know it's not as you want but no one else will 

 But shrinkage is normal. The smell is normal. They need hanging in fresh air a day, maybe 2

I have an expensive loose chair cover. Needs washing because dry cleaning didnt get it clean so if it's any consolation I'm dreading trying to stretch it in all directions over the chair. If you see blue air over the west country that'll be it 

Ganga

When we had our curtains ( Dunelm )cleaned  we struggled to find a local company ,the curtains were marked Dry Clean only but it had to be a special chemical used, something to do with the enviroment ,was not cheap and when they came back the linings were starting to break up ,kept them for a year or two then gave them to our DIL who is glad to have them.

twopenny

Ah yes, linings are a different fabric blend so don't shrink at the same rate.
Sheesh, things I've known for a long time but back then we were told of the likely chance of shrinkage and by how much.
The first pre made curtains used to have pre shrunk or linings not/pre shrunk.
I'm thinking that these days of quick sales/disposal to keep up with trends it's not been questioned. Now we are short of money it needs to be addressed.

greenbee

When I’ve had curtains made I’ve always been told to clean them by vacuuming regularly with an upholstery brush and avoid dry cleaning. 

akira181

had a sniff of the duvet. Unsure if it's the same floral smell but the duvet definitely smells much much stronger (machine wash, not dry clean). Neither smell is unpleasant, they're just there. I didn't expect dry cleaning to leave a smell, much less a floral one.

Pretty !!!!!! that I wasn't warned cause I probably wouldn't have done it and just given them a whack & hoover to clean. I thought the point of dry cleaning was to avoid damaging the material, including shrinkage, by avoiding hot water and/or tumble drying.

I guess I'll just have to chalk that up to life experience and hope that getting the hem dropped won't be too obvious, although I'm quite certain the hem brushing the floor has left a wear mark on the fold line.