How To Shrink Clothes Without Washing | 2 Pro-tips

Do you know that you can shrink your clothes without even washing them? Many people shrink their clothes with the help of a washing machine or a sewing machine. But, both these processes are very lengthy. To shrink clothes with sewing, you need to have the sewing skill as well as a sufficient amount of time. 

On the other hand, using a washing machine requires hours as you have to dry the clothes too. So, when you are in a hurry and don’t have enough time to perform these activities, you’ll start looking for ways how to shrink clothes without washing or sewing. Don’t worry, and we’ll provide you with a list of several methods of shrinking your clothes without even washing them in this brief article.

Ways Of Shrinking Clothes Without Washing

The types of clothes which can be shrunk without washing are not limited. Usually, you can shrink natural fibers better than synthetic fibers. Because natural fibers are less heat resistant compared to synthetic fibers. However, you can also shrink synthetic fibers such as polyesters with more effort for a longer period.

From the numerous methods of shrinking clothes without washing, we’ve selected the most simple and best ways to perform this job. So, without further due, let’s dig into the main part.

1. Using A Dryer

The best way to shrink clothes without washing is by using a dryer. As the machine works according to the specific command, there is no chance that the dryer will fail when shrinking the clothes. But, to get the perfect result, you must follow some basics and make sure that the dryer is working the way it should. All of these things are explained in the below steps.

1. First, get the clothes that you want to shrink. If they are all made from the same type of material, you can work using them together. But, when synthetic fabric and natural fiber clothes are mixed, it is better to separate them and follow the shrinking process separately.

The reason behind doing such is that two types of clothes won’t respond in the same way and don’t shrink at the same pace. Besides, using them together also reduces the shrinking rate due to the mismatch.

2. After selecting and categorizing the clothes, turn them inside out and wet them in the water. You can use the sink if you don’t have a large number of clothes. Otherwise, use a big bucket and submerge the clothes entirely in the water.

If you want more shrink, you can also boil the water, including all the clothes. Thus, the fabrics will become more warmed and shrink more. Nonetheless, if you want to avoid more shrinkage than just using the dryer, avoid the boiling part.

3. Now, after fully getting wet, move the clothes from the bucket to the dryer. Before moving them, make sure that they are not too hot. Besides, use any utensil or spoon to move and check the current condition of the clothes.

After putting the clothes into the dryer, run the highest temperature setting. Here, you will use the highest setting possible as the highest temperature increases the ability to shrink more.

4. When you’ve put the clothes in the dryer and the drying process is running, you should continuously keep checking the drying condition so that the clothes are not over-dried. If you dry more, the clothes will shrink more, even crossing your limit.

After perfectly done, take out the shrunk clothes and put them on to check if they’ve fulfilled your needs. If not, then you need to repeat the whole process to shrink more.

2. Using Steam Iron

Steam iron is one of the modern inventions of the ironing industry. Identically, this device comes with a water tank inside that is used to heat the water and create steam. Besides, the steam iron has many tiny holes in its soleplate, which allows steam to pass through.

As this iron has a steaming capability, you can make use of this iron to combine the heat and steam at once and start shrinking the clothes. In order to shrink your clothes using this iron, focus on the following steps.

1. Begin with preparing the iron. First, check if the water tank is empty, and fill it when needed. Then, set the water tank on the iron and plug it in to activate the device.
2. After your steam iron is ready with its water tank, set the highest temperature setting on the iron. Because providing both high heat and steam can shrink any cloth quickly. When you are sure that the steam section of the iron is working correctly, move on to the next step.
3. Now, lay the clothing you want to shrink onto a flat surface or on the ironing board. Always use a flat surface for ironing as it keeps the balance when stretching or shrinking any fabric. Otherwise, some parts will be loose, and some parts will be tighter. Don’t forget, if you want to maintain it properly, this can be the best way to shrink such clothes which get damaged easily.
4. When you iron delicate clothing, turn it inside out to prevent damaging the fabric. If you are not sure about the safety of the cloth, using a pressing cloth above the clothing can help you. However, the speed of shrinking will be slow in that case. In this way, you can shrink your clothes one by one.

Conclusion

In most cases, when you want to shrink your clothes without washing them, the standard mechanism is always to steam and dry or heat them simultaneously. In this article, we’ve shown two straightforward techniques, which include using a steam iron or a dryer. Using a steam iron doesn’t require extra washing or wetting the clothes, but you have to soak your clothes before using the dryer to shrink them.