How to Shrink Clothes

Cotton is borderline notorious for its shrink potential. Many a person has been annoyed when a fitted T shrunk to teeny-tiny proportions, or those undies shrunk to the point of being unwearable. This is great news for people who actually want to shrink a garment, however. The even better news is that it's easy to do! Here's how [source: Whirlpool]:

Cotton shrinks more easily than other materials because it's made of plant fibers, which are not particularly elastic. When washed, the threads swell up with water, and as a result they get thicker, causing the fabric to shrink. Most manufacturers these days are wise to this risk, and often make garments with preshrunk cotton (as in, they shrink it themselves before making the clothes). However, even that variety is known to get smaller, albeit to a lesser extent [source: Britannica].

Wool is almost frighteningly easy to shrink, so it's important not to go completely wild with this one. Instead, take a slow and steady approach to shrink that wool sweater to the right size. In particular, steamy heat is the key to success in this venture.

Interestingly, the reason that wool pieces shrink so much is that these animal hair fibers get all matted when they get wet. Add in some washing machine agitation and they rub together to form a much more condensed chunk of material than they started out [source: Herdy]. This is also true of cashmere, which is why such pieces come with very strict washing instructions.

If you overshoot the margin and shrink your wool sweater too much, it is possible to unshrink it a bit. One easy method is to use hair conditioner, which (as it does with human hair) helps wool fibers to relax away from each other. To do this:

Moving right along to a popular synthetic fabric, polyester is actually the most used fiber in the world. In fact, it makes up about half of all fibers used, and a whopping 80 percent of synthetic fibers! The material is actually a type of plastic, typically made from petroleum [source: CFDA].

Because of its makeup, polyester is more resistant to shrinking than many other fabric types. However, it can still be shrunk, whether accidentally, or on purpose. Here's how to do it:

Anytime excessive heat is used on a garment, however, there is risk of burning the fabric, so iron at your own risk [source: Aanya Linen].

Just because a garment is made from pre-shrunk cotton or has already been washed a million times doesn't mean that all hope is lost. It's still possible to shrink it down to the desired size, but it requires slightly more extreme methodology [source: MasterClass].

There's always some risk involved in shrinking clothes on purpose, whether it's shrinking too much or otherwise damaging the fabric. Take your time, follow the steps and don't attempt the process on anything too valuable because dealing with textiles is always a little bit risky.

Originally Published: Apr 19, 2011