I washed some 2.5 inch Hoffman cut strips. They shrunk 1/8 inch in width. This about 15 years ago.
Was it baiks in the jelly roll? That long ago there was no standard for how a pre cut was actually cut. Believe it or not Missouri Star had the standard for all pre cuts to be the same, in cuts and amounts per pre cut name. They were buying massive bulk orders, the manufactures complied.