I had high plans on wearing a special bold striped knit dress when I was in NYC with Patti.

The Story Of The Dress That Wouldn’t Stop Growing

This was a splurge I purchased with my Anthropologie gift certificate hubby gave me for my birthday. It reminds me of  Missoni. One of the other two dresses I purchased with the gift certificate you can see here, and another one I’ll be posting about soon were on deep discount (close to 75% off) in the sales section.  This dress however was only reduced by 20% at the time which made it decidedly rich for my wallet/gift certificate.

Nevertheless, I convinced myself that it needed to be in my wardrobe.  

I was sure that the timeless, flattering cut and bold, colorful, chevron knit would be happy in my closet for many years to come. 

I knew the dress was too long but figured I could take it up by hand. In the photo below I’m wearing platform booties prior to taking up the hem a good three inches.

Here is the culprit, The Dress That Wouldn’t Stop Growing

My plan was to wear this to the Camp exhibition at the Met. 

When I arrived at Patti’s fab apartment she had kindly cleared some space in her closet for my clothes so I hung up my newly hemmed dress for the following day. 

I must have inadvertently fallen down a magic rabbit hole and shrunk that night because when I woke and put on the dress it was touching the floor, even with me wearing a bit of a heel. 

Of course it wasn’t me that shrunk, the damn expensive dress grew three inches overnight. Luckily I’d brought along an alternate vintage dress to wear.  We had to venture out into torrential rain that day and I’m sure the Anthropologie dress would have been dragging a few feet behind me well before we’d even made it to the subway platform. New York is a great city but you do not want your clothing touching the ground and certainly not any part of the subway station. I could see the headlines now

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Nope.

The dress was not debuted in New York as I’d hoped.

I wasn’t happy.

Once back home, still determined to wear the dress, I put on some extra high platform heels and wore it out thrifting and to buy groceries. I had a full inch of clearance between the hem of the dress and the floor when I left the house. A couple hours after wearing the piece the hem was kissing the ground! In fact, it had stretched so much that it caught in the grocery cart wheels! ARGH!!! Nothing like dropping most of my birthday gift certificate on what is clearly an ill conceived item of clothing.  There is no way that the dress should have been made out of a knit that stretches in leaps and bounds every time it is worn. Word to the wise…this is made of 58% viscose, 33% polamide and 9% cotton. Avoid this mix unless you are making chewing gum.

It was clear, a Missoni this was not.

Of course, by this time I couldn’t take the dress back as it no longer had the tags and I’d taken it up.  The dress had stretched out so much the empire waist was creeping down past my natural waist and the flattering v-neck had morphed into an obscene plunging neckline. There is nothing quite like wearing an expensive dress made of Silly Putty. 

I had two options, take it up again or risk trying to shrink it.

I chose the latter.  The dress simply wasn’t working for me anymore.

Trying to shrink items is a bit like throwing dice, you have no control.  

Will it come out the perfect size for your pleasantly plump pug to wear while languidly lounging around the house?  

Will it shrink at all?  

Who the heck knows?

I soaked the dress and popped it into a hot dryer crossing my fingers it would no longer be a danger to my health.  

Well folks…

It worked!

The dress has shrunk enough so I once again have a full three, maybe even four inches of clearance between the hem and the floor.

I will let you know the next time I wear this if it is back to its usual growing tricks. I have a feeling I might be washing and shrinking it after every wear.  

Anthropologie, this pretty dress is a big #FAIL. 

Have you ever had a similar problem with knitwear? 

If so, please share! 

Linking up with Visible Monday, Turning Heads Tuesday, Fancy Friday, and Spy Girl