Why does cotton make clothes shrink?
Question:i never did understand why clothes shrink if they have a lot of cotton in them
Answers:
Why do cotton and wool shrink when you wash them?
There are two kinds of shrinkage. Progressive shrinkage occurs when the fiber itself shrinks. Wool fiber shrinks a little more each time it is washed, which is why wool is usually dry cleaned. Relaxation shrinkage is when the fabric shrinks. It is caused by the tension applied to yarns and fabrics during construction. The tension is released when the fabric is washed or steam pressed, causing it to shrink to its natural size. Most cotton fabric shrinkage occurs during the first wash.
Why do jeans shrink?
Believe it or not, shrinkage is a "bonding" experience. The cotton fibers of your jeans are made of lots of small molecules, linked together to form huge chains of molecules called polymers. Weak links called hydrogen bonds connect the polymer chains end-to-end. When the bonds break, the polymers crinkle up. Result: shrinkage.
Could you start at the begining?
Sure. Let's go back to when your jeans were made. When cotton fibers are spun into threads, they--and the polymers they're made of--are first pulled and twisted. That puts stress on the hydrogen bonds.
The bonds are stressed even more before weaving, when the threads are stretched on a loom. So much stress breaks the bonds. But new ones form to hold the polymers in the "stressed out" state.
Of course, the polymers "want" to return to their natural relaxed state.
To do that, they need bond-breaking energy. You help by throwing your jeans in the wash.
How? Chemicals, such as water in your washing machine, or heat in the washer or dryer privide the energy needed to break the stress-producing hydrogen bonds. When the bonds break, the polymers crinkle up and relax. "That's when shrinkage happens," says Ravichandran.
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