The saga of the shrunken sweater

Todays post was suppose to show the inside of my home, decorated for Valentines Day.  As they say, the best laid plans....

We are re-financing our home and the inspector is coming by this week to appraise our house.  My husband asked that I not have the Valentine Day décor up but do something to show the house off in the best way possible. 

Now, while I agree with his philosophy I had a difficult time coming up with something simple and classy... So I went basic, clean and uncluttered. 

This is what I came up with for our mantle and coffee table.  I will probably remove the runner from the coffee table as I'm not happy with the look.  I do love the mantle though.  I got those glass lanterns at Kirkland's. 

Now to the saga of the shrunken sweater... it all ties in bear with me.

My husband was trying to help me with really cleaning the house, we did walls, baseboards and every light fixture was taken down and cleaned.  We want it to look immaculate when the home appraiser comes.  Luckily it is winter and it is going to be in the 60's all week so when the appraiser walks out on my back deck he will see that we have a magnificent view of the entire front range here in Colorado Springs.  Pikes Peak is directly west of the house and sits picture perfect out my back sliding glass doors.

I will even stage the back deck, clean off the chairs, rugs, pillows etc. and set it up similar to how I set it up for the summer so the appraiser can see how much room we have and how nice our deck is. 

In an effort to help my husband washed clothes for me... see I'm getting to the shrunken sweater finally!  He washed and dried his favorite angora/wool blend sweater in warm water.   Then he dried it.  I think it might fit my teenage daughter now!  My husband is a big guy, 6'4, 175 pounds and the sweater didn't cover his chest!  As my daughter said, 'It's a belly sweater now Mom!'

The poor guy,  he just stood there and looked at the sweater when he pulled it out of the dryer.  He tried it on and came to me looking pitiful and sad.  If he hadn't looked so forlorn I might have laughed for 5-10 minutes because the thing looked that funny on him.  I told him I'd do some research and try to fix it. 

I really had no idea what I've gotten myself into here.. how do you fix a shrunken sweater?  Can you fix a shrunken sweater?  I did an online search and found a blog post and several Pins on the subject, (I re-pinned them so check out my cleaning board).  I figured, why not, I couldn't make the thing any worse..... right?  Right? 

So, here is what I did with the sweater. 
Step 1 - Fill the bathtub with cold water
Step 2 - Pour conditioner in the tub and try to dissolve it... tricky in the cold water
Step 3 - Place shrunken sweater in the tub and soak it for an hour
Step 4 - Every 10 minutes I would come in and stretch it, just by pulling on it.  I did the front, then turned the sweater over and did the back. 
*** I swear it looks longer now....
Step 5 - After an hour I squeezed as much water as I could out of the sweater and rolled it in a large bath towel.  I kept stretching it as I went.
Step 6 - Let the water out of the tub, clean the tub
Step 7 - Let the sweater dry rolled in the towel. 

So here is the sweater as it started out.

 This is the conditioner I used and I used 1/2 the bottle!  Per the Pins I used the conditioner relaxes the fibers in the material and thus allowing you to stretch it back to its normal size. 

This is the sweater after 30 minutes and me stretching it... it does look longer don't you think?

This is the sweater after and hour and me stretching it.  I swear it is longer!

This is the sweater rolled in the towel.

 It is still drying... long process.  The Pin said the reason you roll it is to keep its shape and not allow the fibers to shrink back again while drying.  Makes sense.

Now it just has to dry.... I'll let you know how it turns out, I mean I can't make it worse, right?

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I appreciate you reading.  Stop back next week, I promise I'll be decorated for Valentines Day.  AND I'll share if this worked or not and if we now have an 'un-shrunken' sweater!
Until then,
Stay Safe!
Victoria

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