or knitted into a fabric and after dying the last processing step is stentering in a continuous oven at a temperature of 390 to 410 degrees fahrenheit to set the polyester thermoplastic core see fig9 once the core is heat set in this manner the fabric can undergo repeated washings in hot water and drying in a hot dryer and the fabric will retain its shape and size because the fabric will not again be subjected to temperatures exceeding 390 to 410 degrees f it is also preferred that the core material be a thermoplastic material accordingly the core can not be made from a nylon or glass material because these materials are not thermoplastic which is required for this process fabric made i e knitted or woven from the composite yarn according to the present invention has significantly less shrinkage than conventional cotton fabrics which have been shrinkage controlled by conventional methods such as application of formaldehyde based resins pre shrinkage or compaction additionally fabrics made according to the present invention may be dyed and or printed with conventional methods because the outer surface of the composite yarn is completely made of cotton thus fabrics made in accordance with the present invention are especially suitable for forming knit and woven shrinkage resistant fabrics for use in apparel industrial and home furnishing industries the preferred core yarn is a multi filament textured stretched non set yarn with a twist opposite to that of the air jet spinning process the core yarn should consist of a denier that is between 30 and 70 of the overall composite yarn by weight the preferred staple fiber is a cotton fiber made.