T-shirt fabric always seems to shrink upwards, leaving it just as tight/loose, but looking stupid because it's all short. They should rotate the material 90 degrees (difficult to imagine for a tube, but still) so that it stays the same length, but shrinks inwards. Then it doesn't matter if you stretch it a bit.
-- omegatron, Feb 04 2005

Long skinny toast [Worldgineer, Feb 04 2005]

And then you look twice as sexy. Right?
-- k_sra, Feb 04 2005


Would this really work? Does it do this because of fabric orientation? Or is it just like buttered toast, it always lands butter-side down? (Or in this case, gets shorter?)
-- DesertFox, Feb 04 2005


Buttered toast always lands face-down because of the height of your counter.
-- Worldgineer, Feb 04 2005


Butter it after you drop it.
-- FarmerJohn, Feb 04 2005


If the toast isn't buttered does it land on the side?
-- BPhilpotts, Feb 04 2005


And if it is buttered on the edge, does it land standing up?
-- phundug, Feb 05 2005


I do think that weave orientation has much to do with the way, direction, that a garment will shrink. I also think that this directional tendency varies greatly from fabric to fabric as does the "strength" of the shrinkage. In the case of cotten tees, I'm not sure that there is much directional shrinkage but that the shirt is easier to stretch out around the girth of the wearer because it happens merely by the wearing of the shirt. Not so the lengthwise shrinkage as there's no anchorpoint against which to stretch.
-- bristolz, Feb 05 2005


Some weighted version of robinism's 'frayed not' device applied to your tees might be in order here.
-- JungFrankenstein, Feb 05 2005


Oooh, ooh ... ditto this for pant legs.
-- reensure, Feb 05 2005


Just add fishing weights to your pant cuffs? Would help both for fitness purposes and to slow down your stride.
-- Worldgineer, Feb 07 2005


//In the case of cotten tees, I'm not sure that there is much directional shrinkage but that the shirt is easier to stretch out around the girth of the wearer because it happens merely by the wearing of the shirt.

Hmm... maybe. I think it's the direction of weave, though. I had this black tshirt that was exactly right and when it shrank, it got stupidly short, but didn't shrink inwards at all. I dunno. I'm not an expert.
-- omegatron, Feb 22 2005


In a shirt (or pants) every piece of thread will shrink at the same rate, but because vertical distance of a shirt is more important in terms of appearance and airflow across your gut than circumference, you notice vertical shrinkage more.

That being said, a shirt may actually shrink more side-to-side than up-and-down, if the circumference exceeds length.
-- shapu, Dec 18 2006


Note especially that a chance of one inch circumference will only change the radius by 1/6".
-- supercat, Jan 12 2009



random, halfbakery