My stretch khakis shrank, and are now too short...?

Question

I washed my khakis today, and accidentally dried them on too high a setting. Now they're a little too short. I have plans to wear them out tonight. Is there anything I can do to stretch them back to their original length??

BTW, they're very stretchy.

Answer 1

Get them really wet again, put something heavy on the ends of the legs, and ten either hold them tight until they dry (thats a long time), or pull them tight over a chair or something and put something heavy on the other end.
They wont get back to the original size, but its worth a try. It has worked for me in the past.

Answer 2

I've had this happen before, also with a pair of stretchy khakis. I just took out the bottom hem and it gave me an extra 1-2 inches for a hem. It had the surged edge but it didn't look bad. You can try doing that, but if you don't want the surged edge, fold it up 1/4", iron and sew with matching thread and your stitch length at 3. If you don't have a sewing machine you can do it by hand, it's quite easy. Fold and press and about every 1/2" do an invisible stitch. This is when you go into the fabric (above the edge of the hem) just enough to get 2 strands of the fabric from the pants on the needle and then go into the hem, and repeat every 1/2". http://vintagesewing.info/1930s/30-paris/paris-illus/p-082.jpg If you look at that there is a tiny strand of fabric on the needle, right below the edge.

Answer 3

You can make them shorter but you can only make them longer if your were a seamstress with a sewing machine at hand and another piece of matterial that you like you would cut and dd on to both legs put a little piece of the same material on the pockets and it would be you in grand style. Other than that just remember to prevent such sorrows you hardly every dry stretch stuff in a machine except tumble dry. Air dry or dry clean is the best solution.

Answer 4

Wear them and pretend they are capris.

Answer 5

maybe they never shrank.you just got bigger