The Spray Bottle Is Your Friend

35 years and 3 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. Now 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.

Usually I 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!

Then last week I was reading the comments on one of Big Mama’s Fashion Friday posts, and someone mentioned using a spray bottle to wet the back of her jeans so they would loosen up. Now this sounded like a grand idea!

For one thing, my method, already flawed, also posed another problem. Invariably, I found that when the jeans were at the perfect degree of dampness to put on and stretch out, it was not always a most convenient time to wear the jeans. So I would try 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?

So when I read Big Mama’s comment, I wasted no time running out to CVS and purchasing a pretty pink spray bottle for the express purpose of dampening the waistband my jeans.

Now whenever I go to put on a pair of jeans that have been recently laundered (read: 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.

Works for ME!

Originally posted at Musings of a Housewife 10/1/07.