Fifty Plus (50+) - Can I shrink my sweats?

I bought some fleece sweat pants a while ago, and just found them again today. They are now too large for me (woohoo!) but I can't take them back to the store (well, maybe I could, but no receipt and I'm not even sure where I bought them).

So...would a hot washing and hot dryer shrink them for me, or should I just start carbo loading and bulk up?

Just how much did you pay for these fleece pants? I have some that I paid something like $6 from Target. If I undergrow them, I'm not going to worry about them. Give them to Goodwill and hope I never fit into them again.

Neither. Put them in a bag with anything else oversized and give them to Goodwill. You don't want to go back to where you were a year ago.

Congrats on the weight loss, by the way, and here's to your staying fit!

That's the style now. Just make sure to wear them low with some butt crack showing.:D

So can anyone answer my original question?

So can anyone answer my original question?

Oh, it was a question - I thought you were asking for permission.

It's absolutely fine by me, shrink away!

So...would a hot washing and hot dryer shrink them for me, or should I just start carbo loading and bulk up?

If they're 100% cotton and they've never been washed before, they would probably shrink. If there's any polyester in them, probably not. My experience is that things shrink vertically, so you might have some ankle showing if you have normal-length legs.

What the heck, just go for it and see what happens. Then donate them.

If you have any better things than sweats you can have them dry cleaned, soaked for a few days in water containing fire retarding chemicals, dried in a dryer at very high heat, then returned to the dry cleaner. Repeat this cycle several times or untill the dry cleaner looses them. Retain a lawyer and sue.

Why would one need fleece sweat pants in San Diego?

If they are cotton they will shrink. Here's the way I used to do it. Find a laundromat across the street from a restaurant with an all you can drink Sunday brunch! Put sweats in washer. Have bloody mary and omlette of choice and start watching football game. Order a second bloody mary. Go back to laundromat and place sweats in dryer with enough time to get you through the first football game (about 2 hours). Go back and drink bloody marys and watch football. When dryer is done chances are good those sweats will have shrunk a size or two. If they still don't fit(too small or too big) you wont care!

I bought some fleece sweat pants a while ago, and just found them again today. They are now too large for me (woohoo!) but I can't take them back to the store (well, maybe I could, but no receipt and I'm not even sure where I bought them).

So...would a hot washing and hot dryer shrink them for me, or should I just start carbo loading and bulk up?

Try it and see. Make sure the dryer is REAL REAL hot, and set to run for at least two hours. If they are smoking or melting, that's just about right. Stop before they get to "mini me" size.

I'm with the try and see group, with before and after pics, so we can all learn something!

I think regardless of how much they shrink, he should still be required to put them on and take a picture.

So can anyone answer my original question?

Alright, already!!!

http://www.wikihow.com/Shrink-Cotton-Fabrics

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=344360

So can anyone answer my original question?

Yawn....

What was the question?


Sheesh, ever heard of Google? It can often be used to find the answers to many obscure (and uninteresting) problems. For instance, Googling "shrinking fleece pants" brought this up as #1: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061027084349AACLrMm


Or, you could just try the hot wash, hot dryer...what do you have to lose (speaking of your fleece pants, of course)?

If that wash/dry regimen doesn
t shrink them, most likely nothing will. You might take them over to the shop you bought your bike at and complain. Let them know that it's their fault that all of your clothes are suddenly too big. Then set the case of micro-brew down gently and leave in a huff.

I always ask my wife...

fleece is plastic, i think it would probably melt before it shrank, although shrinky-dinks are plastics so i have no idea

I bought some fleece sweat pants a while ago, and just found them again today. They are now too large for me (woohoo!) but I can't take them back to the store (well, maybe I could, but no receipt and I'm not even sure where I bought them).

So...would a hot washing and hot dryer shrink them for me, or should I just start carbo loading and bulk up?

Not sure if you can shrink your sweats, but you might try sweating your shrink...

So can anyone answer my original question?

Jeezuz. Put them in the dryer and see if they fit when they come out. If they do, fine. If they don't, you haven't lost anything, because you can't wear them now.

usually a couple of washes in HOT water and Hot drying will shrink them.
i had an older pair that that gotten a little baggy, cut off about 6 inches of each leg and made a
fairly neat finished seam on each cuff. Now use them as shoulder season riding
pants, most comfortable pant I own. My spouse teases me about my "pedal pushers",
i don't care- they are comfortable.

So can anyone answer my original question?

Yes. It's one of those Murphy's Law things. If the sweats are borderline too small, washing in hot water will make them shrink uniformly. If they're a little too big, such washing will shorten the legs but expand them around the waist and butt.

Fortunately, you now have some excellent material for making bike washing rags. That's important for keeping your white bike spiffy looking.

Shrinking: back in the olden days clothing made of cotton did shrink. Then came "Sanforized" a trademark used for fabric preshrunk by a patented mechanical process so as to minimize later shrinkage. Most all clothing has this.

As far as Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc. These normally go to a Thrift Store and customers pay for used clothing. If your target is the poor, needy, homeless, etc., then there are organizations that I think do a different job in distribution of food, clothing, necessities, shelter. Both would be a charitable deduction.