Thirty-five years and three kids has not been kind to my
midsection.  I may be within five pounds of the same weight I was
before my body bore any children, but the weight is not distributed in
quite the same way.

This becomes most bothersome when trying to fit into pants.  In
other words, my waist is a full size larger than my hips and legs.  I
know Clinton and Stacy say to fit the largest part of you and then make
friends with a tailor, but really, that’s so impractical.  To say
nothing of expensive.

For a time, I would try to put on my jeans when they’re not quite dry so that
they stretch out, but what I find is, they stretch out in the right
places AND the wrong places.  So the waist might feel better, but then
I get Baggy Butt Disease.

Oh the trials!

The other flaw with that method is that when the
jeans were at the perfect degree of dampness to put on and stretch out,
it was not always a convenient time to wear the jeans.  So
I would have to coordinate my daily schedule and the drying cycle so
that the jeans were ready to put on when I was ready to wear them.
Clearly this was quite a production.

Can we say high maintenance?

Then I discovered the spray bottle.  And my life was changed forever.

Okay, so it wasn’t that dramatic.  But now I have a pretty pink
spray bottle for the express purpose of dampening the waistband my
jeans.  And whenever I go to put on a pair of jeans that has been
recently laundered and shrunk back to their original dimensions, I take
my handy dandy pink spray bottle and give them a good dousing right
around the waistband area. 

Then when I put them on, it only takes about five minutes of regular
wear (and perhaps a few deep knee bends) to stretch the waist band to
the desired circumference.  (Incidentally, this also works if your
pants are tight in the tushy area, or any other area for that matter.)

Voilà!  Pants that fit comfortably.  WithOUT a tailor.  And that, my friends, is a something to sing about!

Originally posted October 2007

Do you have a trick you’d like to share for getting your jeans to fit just right?  I’m sure we’d all love to hear it.

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Hey, I’ve got a fun giveaway going on at Chic Critique today.  Check it out!