My mother In Law and myself use to make all our men hunting shirts (all the men are 6'7'' to 7ft tall). we made them 20 years ago when flannel had polyester in them and we made a LOT of them. The men LOVED them. Then flannel went to 100%cotton and we had to stop making the shirts because of all the reasons you have listed. It was a sad day in our family of tall people. I wont ever make anything out of 100% cotton flannel. Its not your fault. Its a lousy product.