Purposefully shrinking diced hose?

[BonnetMaker]

Blocking carefully after washing is also very important to retain a good fit wear-to-wear with hose. More 'historic' styles of hose in particular often do have a small amount of sag at the ankles compared to modern ribbed or elasticated hose (you can often see this on statues or portraits) and the way to avoid this is to wash them carefully, then shape them whilst wet ideally on a leg shaped form, but if not, by shaping them flat so that you have smoothed the ankle area out to a slimmer shape and tweaked the calf to a rounder shape, then allow to dry fully. Its amazing how big a difference it does make, especially one you are carefully gartered.

[LitTrog]

Tried the hairdryer approach. One at a time, wet them with hot water & blowdried on the highest setting. The improvement wasn't dramatic, but they did tighten some. Most importantly, I did not ruin my investment! Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.