How to shrink a shirt?

Either you ordered a shirt too big or you recently lost some weight. Regardless you want to shrink your shirt. 

How to shrink a shirt. This is a topic I did not image writing about but now I see there are a lot of people that ask this question. So you ordered a new shirt in the mail and you noticed you ordered a size too big. If this is not a personalize or custom t-shirt they may let you exchange it for a different size. If this is a personalized t-shirt then you will either need to gain some weight or shrink your shirt. Another scenario is that you have been working out and getting into shape. The only thing is your clothing is now too big. So you may need to try and shrink your shirt. 

Now we have some good news and some bad news. Which do you want first? The good news is that if you got your shirt from us it most likely is 100% cotton. The bad news is that all our shirts are preshrunk. Don't worry though. We wrote a post on how to wash your dtg printed t-shirts. That is the correct way to wash your shirts with minimum shrinkage and protect the custom print on the shirt also. So guess what you are going to need to do. That's right, wash and dry your shirts incorrectly.

For me, this is no biggie because I am always washing my shirts incorrectly. If my shirt shrinks I just print another one. Cool right? Probably not for you because we charged you a million dollars to print the t-shirt. Just kidding our shirts start at $7.99 just in case you have not purchased from us before. Ok, so there are a lot of people on the internet saying that they boil their shirts to get them to shrink. That is definitely not a good idea. Why in the world would you boil your t-shirt? That sounds like they are trying to get you to just go and buy a new shirt. Ok so let's just get to it. 

Something else to note is that if your shirt is polyester your shirt is most likely not going to shrink. Well, that is unless you catch it on fire and burn it to ashes. That is the only way to get a polyester shirt to shirk. Now if it is cotton then you definitely have a great chance to make this happen.

How to shrink a t-shirt

1. Turn Your T-shirt INSIDE OUT
2. Wash your t-shirt with COLD water. DO NOT USE HOT WATER
3. Turn your Dryer settings to HOT or HIGH
4. Dry your shirts for the Longest setting. Usually 60 Minutes
5. Repeat steps 2-4
6. You are Done Your shirt should now be Shrunk

The reason why I say don't waste your time trying to shrink polyester it's because it's synthetic. It like a plastic, They say you can use boiling hot water and heat dry on the highest setting but this can damage your shirt. I would not recommend this. You can always save your shirt and protect it's print and later on if you don't return to your size cut it out and have it sewn on to your own t-shirt quilt.

How to shrink your shirt Comment from our readers:

Questions from comments: This is the only set of instructions I've read saying use cold water. Cold water prevents shrinkage, so you need to use hot water. If the shirt was printed properly, no writing or designs will come off.

The reason that you should not use Hot or warm water to shrink your t-shirt is that Hot and warm water breaks down cotton fibers causing your colors to fade. It may be ok to use hot and warm water if the shirt you are trying to shrink is white but I am uncertain if it will change the brightness of your white. There may be a lot of variables. Are you trying to shrink an old used shirt? Are you trying to shrink a new shirt that you can not return? 

Also, Hot water can also cause the inks to fade if you have a graphic design printed on them. You can see this happening with an old shirt that you don't want to let go. Over time inks will break down and the hot and warm water will help it. So if you want longevity for your shirt color and graphic we recommend cold water and Heat high drying for shrinking your shirt.