Shrinking Jeans
For most of my life, I have assumed that jeans, fresh from the laundry, are tight because they shrink in the dryer. Fortunately, they stretch out after a bit of wear. But in the past few years I’ve been confronted with jeans that no longer stretch, and somehow don’t seem to button. My scale has said relatively the same number for years, so maybe my body is rearranging. Are the shifts making the jeans tight?
I hope not. Shifting and sagging are symptoms of age. Forty is the new thirty, so I can’t be old. The wisdom of my daughter, Paige, filled me with optimism. “Mom, don’t you just love wearing jeans on the second day?” my almost thirteen year old asked.
“Why do you say that?” I wonder, because I can’t think of the last time I wore jeans two days in a row.
“They stretch out and get so comfy.”
I guess I need to wear my jeans a little longer to get the benefit of a loose fit. Maybe I’m not shifting, but washing my jeans too often. So like my daughter, I began to wear my jeans more than once. Mostly, on the weekend when I pick Friday’s jeans off the floor as I run out the door for an early estate sale or a Starbucks. But, I found that a pair of jeans I bought just a year ago, are now super tight. Argghh, I must be shifting. I decided to investigate.
Searching the internet I found my answer. Hallelujah! I’m not sagging and shifting – at least maybe not much. According to a textile scientist, washing jeans affects the chemical bonds in the cotton fibers. The water of the wash and the heat of the dryer break the hydrogen bonds in the fabric, causing the polymers it’s made of to crinkle up, and shrink. At some point the bonds can no longer be repaired and the jeans won’t stretch.
I refuse to be restricted. As I get older, my kids continually stretch me. Paige pushed me out of mom jeans and into low rise, JP allows me to feed his lizards live crickets and Graham shows me computer games that I don’t understand. And of course Merritt’s unique life has me worn in like the best pair of jeans in the closet.
Hope lives when I stretch. I see a different tomorrow when today doesn’t look like yesterday. I’m going to stretch Paige this weekend when I take her on her first trip to NYC for her thirteenth birthday. I’ll broaden her world, but she’ll do the same for me. Seeing the city through her eyes will give me a perspective that I couldn’t imagine on my own. The beauty of kids, and neighbors, and cranky people at the grocery store is that they expand our thoughts, allowing us to live outside our tight self-imposed limits.
So when Paige experiences the diversity of the city, I hope she isn’t overwhelmed, but instead wraps herself in the moment and says, “What do we do next, Mom?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Why don’t we shop for jeans?”
2 Responses to “Shrinking Jeans”
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March 16th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Oh, dear, I’m afraid I can identify. I had an hysterectomy in November and still cannot get these jeans to button like they used to! One would assume when you removed everything then the tummy would dip inward..not so, apparently! Great post.
March 16th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Like you, my kids regularly stretch me, thank heavens. If it weren’t for them, my fibers would crinkle and shrink, for certain. My daughters taught me how to write text messages (though they poke fun at my proper punctuation). They also make me spend too much money on self-improvement items like bras and mascara. If I don’t go along with it, they promise they’ll report me to the “What Not to Wear” people.
And the other day when the weather broke, my nine-year old had me kicking a football farther than I thought I could. We laughed when I finally collapsed on the trampoline, sore as can be. Not only did my jeans stretch, but my emotions did too. I experienced a feeling I don’t want to forget: being with him, out there, doing nothing but having fun. Ahh, if only it could last forever!