How can I maximize shrinkage in my dress shirts?

Subject them to a large temperature change. To check his shirts for shrinkage, Alex Kabbaz freezes wet shirts solid, and then throws them into a clothes dryer that's already been running on max heat for a while so the shirt gets the maximum temperature shock possible.

--Andre

This will also shorten your sleeve length.

What part of the shirt is too big.
You can not selectivly shrink parts of a shirt.

Better off taking them to a tailor to have them altered.

Carl

get two buckets, one with hot water, one with cold. let it sit in the hot water for a minute and then immediately put it in the cold. let it sit for an hour.

"I was in the pool! I was in the pool!"

put the shirts in the washer with hot water, then put them in the dryer on high heat. Rally bake them. If they are still too big, repeat this process. Cotton will shrink about four times this way.

I'm not fimiliar with rally baking, but how much maximum shrinkage are we talking about? 1 inch in the chest, or more? I picked up a button up shirt to throw around, nice design, but the fit is terrible, and I don't really want to pay for alterations.

While you may be successful at trimming the shirt down a bit, you'll trash the fabric in the process. Why not have a tailor/shirtmaker trim them down?

+1. It's not going to work out the way you would hope for.

Well it is a cheap shirt thats basically a size too large, so Im willing to experiment.

Will freezing do anything?

I had a happy accident of shrinking a slightly-large shirt to fit by nearly boiling it in the machine. Try maximum heat in the washer/dryer first.