Q: content in woven fabric and unwanted stretch

Runcarla

Pet peeve (or worse - I DETEST) when a pair of pants fit perfectly at point of purchase, but 'grow' over the course of the day! They bag, sag, and I find myself constantly hitching them up at the waist. I can only wear them once, and then have to wash them in order to shrink them to fit.

Jeans in:
100% cotton
cotton/spandex
cotton/spandex/polyester
cotton/spandex/viscose/elastane (1%)

Stretchy pants in:
Viscose/nylon/elastane4%

...have all been GOOD though the knees in the stretchy pants bag a little by day 3-4. I have passed on pants and jeans that 'grew' and now don't recall the fabric mix. Viscose and polyester don't seem to be the culprit. I'm wondering is elastane (in high percentages) or modal is the problem.

Any ideas what causes a garment/fabric to 'grow' with body heat? And what I should avoid in order to circumvent this happening?

5 years ago

General

6 replies

Latest reply was from Runcarla

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

It's tricky, RunCarla. Many of my current pants and jeans stretch out ever so slightly after a day of wear. But stop growing after that. It's not noticeable. Some don't stretch out at all.

I passed on ALL pants/jeans that stretch to another size by the end of the day. It was ridiculous.

I can't boil it down to a specific fabric composition at this point - although I tried! It's all in the quality of the fabric and how stable the fibres are.

5 years ago

Runcarla

Veteran

Thanks, Angie. Yup. A little stretch is good, but sometimes the change is just bizarre.

5 years ago

lisaflex

Veteran

i couldnt agree more!! hate it. perfect fit at 10am and by 2pm falling off. i read labels carefully now for that reason - none of that stretchy garbage for this gal! im chubby to begin with, so, sagging and bagging is not my friend! its maddening

5 years ago

JAileen

Veteran

When I first read your post title I thought you were complainng about “stench”!!!

Is it feasible to buy a smaller size that stretches to the right size?

5 years ago

Glory

Veteran

I’m with you on this pet peeve. So many jeans suffer this predicament and the worst is there seems to be no way to determine in advance which ones will do this.

5 years ago

Runcarla

Veteran

JAileen, as Glory wrote, it is hard to know which pants will 'grow' and which won't. I can't abide anything tight around my midriff due to GI issues so trialing something that isn't comfortable at the outset isn't going to happen.

5 years ago

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