Hi girls,
I'm sure I'm not the only one with this dilemma! So I bought a dress, wore it twice, and washed it... stupid me put it in the dryer, and now it's too tight around the ribcage! Any idea as to how to "stretch" it back out? It's 100% cotton and doesn't give much.

I'd wear it around a bit. It might not go 100% back to how it originally fit, but it will loosen. Good luck!

Thanks for the tip, izznit! I'm wearing it now (whilst trying to write a paper) and am hoping it'll stretch...

any other ideas?

Is it a knit? It will probably stretch out if it's a knit or jersey.

You can always put something inside it to stretch it, like if you had a mannequin form that was your size that would be perfect but weird objects like a book might work too.

hey, you can wash it again, but just don't put it in the dryer, hang dry instead.
that's what my mom usually does, and it always works.

I agree with 1mperfectionist. I always re-wash things and then let them hang dry and allow gravity and the weight of the water to pull and stretch out something that shrunk. This worked recently on a pair of jeans of mine that shrunk in length when I washed them and then were as good as new after hanging them to dry the next time.

Nope, not a knit, just a regular cotton dress. Wish my camera wasn't dead, otherwise I'd get a photo of it!

The length shrunk minimally - but that didn't bother me much since I'm short anyway (now it actually looks like an ok length). It's just the area around the ribcage that is most noticeable - I can still get it zipped up with a bit of fiddling around, but it's very tight!

I might try to soak the thing in water and put something in the center part to stretch out the ribcage area. I have no idea what to use though.

The best attempt you could make would be to wear it and hope that it loosens up a bit but i'm going to be honest .. I don't really think it will strech .. trust me, this has happened to me plenty of times.

I think just wearing it will help if it's all cotton :)

Thanks so much for your help everyone! I guess I'll keep on wearing it around the apartment and hope for the best. Otherwise, I guess I'll have to lose weight around the ribcage, haha

This is what I would try: Wet the dress with cold water. Lay it flat on a towel and then with your hands RE-SHAPE it. Stretching it back to where you want it. Let it dry flat.

like above poster said.

my dress had shrunked lengthwise and i hung it and attached pant hangers (wooden ones and plastic ones from the store) at the bottom and let gravity work its magic. it worked for me, but i'm not sure if you want to do that width wise to your dress.

you'll only be able to stretch it minimally without ruining the fabric...you can do what some of the other posters suggested, but be careful not to stretch too much. stretching will def make the fabric weaker and you'll wear out the dress faster.