So how often does a college student ask for laundry advice on...

Intentionally shrinking clothes!!


I have this pair of sweatpants, 80% cotton, 20% polyester with a drawstring waste. I would love to shrink these babies right up, any ideas??

Also, jeans... they temporarily shrink when I take em out of the dryer, but always stretch back... I heard boiling works, I could soak them in very very very hot water for a few hours.

Can you believe this is an issue in my life? I Love it, love it, love it!!

Try leaving them in the dryer for a longer time. If they have been washed a lot previously (ie, not new) you have probably reached its limits.
If you can't wear them otherwise, you have nothing to lose by boiling them, I suppose.

Oh, intentionally shrinking stuff and having it turn out right is sooo tough!

Likely as not, if you did manage to get the sweats shrunk, you'd end up with legs up to your knees and no reduction or possible increase in girth, LOL.

That's the way of life with jeans. I did have this one pair one time that I dearly loved and they were getting a bit faded, and I wanted to be able to wear them to my Saturday job, so I dyed them. Dying takes nearly as much hot water as boiling, though maybe it wouldn't have been enough, but these pants did not stay shrunk.

If you try the boiling method I'd love to know if it works! We've got an entire clothes rotation thing going on at our house, and I know it's going to reach a point where it'll no longer work. Shoot, I'm already having trouble! The daughter's size 20 jeans are now too big for her. I thought, 'Hey, maybe I can wear them!' I put them on last night and they're too big for me! I really thought she was smaller than me.

If they are just sweats, I'd get my hands on a sewing machine and take the outside seam in. Or if they are really baggy, all the seams in.
I have to alter my kids pants often, but jeans just aren't worth it!

I'm just stubbornly refusing to spend money (goin to grad school in england next year - big bucks, and I dont think I'll be able to work. Every penny counts at this point...)

I've set myself a fun little goal:

New pair of jeans in 4 weeks, haha! How fun... I'm gonna be extra good till then, maybe they'll be a size I haven't been in about 5 years - gasp... a 9.

Wash in the hottest water and then dry it on as high as you can. That always shrinks things up for me, well at least for a while.