Shrinkage, Spirality and Skew: Test Them Before They Ruin the Fit
A garment can pass every measurement at final inspection and still fail on the customer's first wash - because the fabric moved. Shrinkage, twist and skew are the dimensional gremlins that turn an in-spec pack into a returns problem, and they are all testable and toleranceable before bulk. Here is what to measure and what to write down.
Shrinkage: measure it after a real wash, not off the roll
Residual shrinkage is how much a fabric changes size after laundering. It is measured by marking a known distance on the fabric, running standard wash-and-dry cycles (AATCC 135 in the US, ISO 6330 internationally), then re-measuring. It is reported as a percentage in length and width - a minus for shrinkage, a plus for growth.
Two rules follow:
- Spec a tolerance, e.g. ≤ ±3% length and width. No fabric is perfectly stable.
- *The pack's points of measure must be the after-wash sizes* if the garment is sold washed - otherwise the labelled size is a size the customer never receives.
Shrinkage, Spirality and Skew: Test Them Before They Ruin the Fit
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