Yes, You Can Shrink Polyester, and Here’s How

• Machine wash polyester clothing in hot water and dry it on high heat to shrink it.
• Re-wash and dry your garment 2-3 times until it’s small enough.
• For more drastic shrinkage, iron your polyester clothing on medium heat while it’s wet. Put a towel between the iron and your garment to protect it.
• Polyester clothing can be resistant to shrinking, especially 100% polyester. Too much high heat can also damage polyester in some cases, so proceed with caution.

Using a Washer & Dryer

Turn your polyester clothing inside out. High heat is great for shrinking clothes, but it also fades them. Turning your garment inside out before washing and drying it will help protect it from fading. High heat can also cause color bleeding and transfer, so wash your polyester garment by itself.

Machine wash the polyester in hot water. Use your washing machine’s hottest water setting and the longest wash cycle. When it comes to shrinking clothes, the more heat, the better. Ideally, the water should be at least 140 °F (60 °C). No need to add detergent, although you totally can if you also want to wash your garment.

Dry the polyester on high heat. Use the highest heat setting and longest dry cycle.

Repeat the process if your polyester clothing didn’t shrink enough. Pull your garment out of the dryer and check out its new size. If it didn’t shrink as much as you hoped, don’t worry! Just repeat the washing and drying steps again to shrink it even more. Keep in mind that the more you wash and dry the garment, the more the color may fade. Only repeat the process 2-3 more times. If your clothing still isn’t small enough, use the iron method instead.

Using an Iron

Machine wash your polyester clothing in hot water. Set the washing machine to the hottest water setting and the longest wash cycle.

Lay the wet polyester on an ironing board. Do this right after it’s done in the wash so it’s still soaked with hot water.

Lay a pressing cloth or white towel over the polyester. This will prevent the iron from damaging your clothing.

Iron the polyester on a low or medium heat setting. Keep ironing until your garment is completely dried. The heat from the iron combined with the warm water in the garment will cause the fabric to shrink! Don’t use the steam setting on your iron—it will prevent the polyester from drying.

Check the results. Voila—your polyester clothing should be much smaller now! If it’s not small enough, try machine washing it in hot water and then drying it on high heat. If it’s still not small enough after that, it’s probably shrunk as much as possible, unfortunately. In that case, it might be time to accept defeat and add the piece to your pile of comfy, around-the-house loungewear!