Advice on Cotton T Shirt Shrinkage: 30 single vs 32 single

9209 Views 9 Replies 3 Participants Last post by blobert, Mar 27, 2012

blobert

Discussion Starter · Mar 26, 2012

Hi Guys,

I'm getting some custom shirts made.

The original samples and indeed the shirts the company uses themselves which were pretty bad for shrinkage so I asked them what they could do about this.

The recommended using 32 single yarn vs 30 in the other shirts.

We had sample shirts made up with this yarn and it basically does not shrink at all, even after a quite a few washes.

I'm left with a a bit of a dilemma where by if I stick with my original spec (very similar to American Apparel and based on the shirts being quite big when new and shrinking quite a bit) they are now too big whereas I'm worried if I reduce the size all round the actual shirts may shrink a bit and be too small.

The 30 single yarn had a 5% shrinkage tolerance and the 32 single a 3% so I won't really have much of a comeback if they do shrink a bit.

Any advice on this would be much appreciated. Is it possible to have 100% cotton tees that don't shrink at all (like the samples I have) and is this likely to vary over different colours (I'll be getting a mix of 10 different colours made up)

Would appreciate any advice before placing an order for a container of them!

Thanks

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Enrique

· #2 · Mar 26, 2012

I don't think anyone can give you a straight answer on this, I think partly because it depends on how every individual washes their clothing. Water temp, dryer temp, drying method, etc., all affect how much a shirt shrinks.

I actually hang-dry my new shirts the first couple of times to minimize shrinkage, I doubt many people do that at all.

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splathead

· #3 · Mar 26, 2012

Agree with Enrique. How did you wash the 32's? To get a true test on real-life shrinkage, you have to wash in the hottest water setting and dry in the hottest dryer setting. Now how do they shrink?

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blobert

Discussion Starter · #4 · Mar 26, 2012

Thanks Guys,

I'm washing them at 40c and hanging them to dry.

Obviously this is not the way everyone will wash them but it's standard to my testing of the other shirts which shrank quite a lot in comparison.

Thanks

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Enrique

· #5 · Mar 26, 2012

blobert I hate to say this but you're doing the test wrong, you have to use the same conditions as what will be used in the end. You're doing the opposite!

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blobert

Discussion Starter · #6 · Mar 27, 2012

Thanks Enrique, these are the condition that will be used, the care labels say to wash at no hotter than 40c and to not tumble dry so it is realistic of what people will do with the shirts.

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splathead

· #7 · Mar 27, 2012

blobert said:
Thanks Enrique, these are the condition that will be used, the care labels say to wash at no hotter than 40c and to not tumble dry so it is realistic of what people will do with the shirts.

You're being naive. Firstly, no one reads labels. Secondly, even if they did they still wouldn't hang to dry.

It's great that the 32's didn't shrink when you hung them to dry, but if you are concerned about shrinkage like you seem to be, you should do more realistic testing.

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blobert

Discussion Starter · #8 · Mar 27, 2012

splathead said:
You're being naive. Firstly, no one reads labels. Secondly, even if they did they still wouldn't hang to dry.

It's great that the 32's didn't shrink when you hung them to dry, but if you are concerned about shrinkage like you seem to be, you should do more realistic testing.

Thanks for that. I think in this part of the world a lot of people do hang to dry but we do have lots of US customers also so I'm guessing we should test for realistic conditions for them also.

What would be average wash heat and tumble dryer heating settings that people are likely to use in your opinion?

Thanks

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splathead

· #9 · Mar 27, 2012

blobert said:
Thanks for that. I think in this part of the world a lot of people do hang to dry but we do have lots of US customers also so I'm guessing we should test for realistic conditions for them also.

What would be average wash heat and tumble dryer heating settings that people are likely to use in your opinion?

Thanks

We don't know where you are since you left your location blank in your avatar.

When you're testing for shrinkage you have to test worse case scenario. That means washing, and drying, on the hottest setting. This is especially true if you're thinking of advertising that your shirts don't shrink.

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blobert

Discussion Starter · #10 · Mar 27, 2012

splathead said:
We don't know where you are since you left your location blank in your avatar.

When you're testing for shrinkage you have to test worse case scenario. That means washing, and drying, on the hottest setting. This is especially true if you're thinking of advertising that your shirts don't shrink.

Thanks Joe, in EU.

I can see the advantage of testing for worst case scenario but realistically, in this part of the world most people are likely to wash at 30-40c and either hang dry or possibly tumble dry so I think that should be the normal scenario.

At those setting tees are shrinking next to nothing vs the 30s but it's probably worth checking for hotter washes also.

Do you know if different colours are likely to make a difference also, I'd hate to base my sizing on one colour and find other shrink more/less!

Also is it realistic that 32 vs 30 should shrink a lot less or are this batch of samples just unusual in some way?

Thanks

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