Shrinking a tail

[UtahMermaidPearl]

So my FinFun monofin doesn't fit anymore because the fabric is stretched, so I wanted to shrink my skin that goes with it and give it as a gift to my boyfriends 6 year old niece. But obviously it needs to be a bit smaller to fit her. It's 82% polyester and 18% spandex, would putting it in the dryer shrink it enough? And if it got wet would it go back to its original size?

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

You're probably better off just taking apart the tail and using the fabric to sew a new one.

However, it is possible to shrink Polyester spandex. http://www.mademan.com/mm/how-shrink-polyester-spandex.html I'm not entirely sure what finfun makes their tails from, so they may or may not actually shrink, and you might only get down one or two sizes this way.

[UtahMermaidPearl]

Ya that seems a little sketchy. Maybe I'll just resize it. Thank you!

[HamptonsMermaid]

I doubt it will shrink... Cottons and wools, natural fibers, will shrink in hot water, but synthetic fibers generally don't shrink.

If you're going to put any work into resizing (sewing) it you may just want new fabric all together. The stretched fabric will be weak and will just stretch more and break. May not stand up to a 6 year old.