Project "shriking my shirts"

This was such an unexpected event, I have decided to write this down as something that I have learned. The story started when I went to Milan earlier this year and got myself a number of colorful shirts. Back home, shirt sizes are pretty standard, so usually you just pick the design you like at the right size. In a hurry, I bought the shirts without trying them on thinking that size doesn't vary that much across the EU...

When I got home I realised my overly priced (albeit on sale) Italian shirts are too big! The shirts looked fine on me when you try them on with jeans and roll up the sleeves, but they are simply too big to be worn with suits. 

In a desperate attempt to justify wasting my hard earned cash, I considered several options including giving them away as generous gifts to a friend or see if any tailors can make the sleeves a little shorter. I was bitterly disappointed when my local tailor told me it would not be possible to re-size the shirt - time to do a lucky draw and pick a friend then.

Unfortunately for John (not the real name of the lucky winner of course) an idea occurred to me as I was chomping away on chicken nuggets one Friday evening. what if I can make the shirt shrink? The neurons in my head did not need much persuasion to locate the mental pictures of pulling mini wool gloves out of washing machines. That's it! Quickly abandoning my bowl of chicken nuggets, I rushed upstairs with a sole purpose to look for a single line of text - "100% wool" the little label says, yes!

So, I started experimenting, "agitating" the wools at different warm temperatures before  drying them. And after 2 trial runs, the shirts went from "oversize" to "slim fit" :)

I wonder if anybody else would ever have the same silly problem, but it definitely works if it ever happens to you lol.