Clothing comes in standard sizes in order to make it easier on the customer who is purchasing the item and to create some uniformity in how things are made. Sizes are meant to be the same throughout the clothing industry, so that if you wear a certain size by one manufacturer, you should be able to count on the fact that buying an item in the same size from another company will fit you also. However this is often not the case. In reality, you can wear a variety of different sizes depending on which company makes it.
You will find that people have even created expressions to help them deal with the vast size differences from manufacturer to manufacturer. One of those expression is the one “it runs small”. When you are told that a shirt runs small, it means that it is made smaller than comparable ones from other manufacturers. Most people understand that this means they should buy the next size up or resign themselves to the fact that the T-shirt will be tight.
Some suggestions of what to do with a T-shirt that you find “runs small” after you’ve gotten it home and washed it and now can’t wear it.
• Call the store and see if they will take it back anyway. They typically won’t, but at least you will have tried.
• Give it to your daughter, sister, cousin or neighbor who is smaller than you.
• Put it on the refrigerator door as your inspiration. By looking at a shirt that is smaller that you are every time you go to eat, you will be turned off from eating so you can lose enough weight to fit into it.
• If you happen to have a big teddy bear that you really like, you can put the T-shirt on it.
• Sew up the holes in it and stuff it to use it for a pillow.
• Cut the seams on the sides of the T-shirt and insert a strip of T-shirt material in a fun color or design. This is a great way to “fix” a T-shirt that is simply too small, but that you really want to wear. The only drawback is that you need to be really good at sewing or have a great seamstress who works for cheap or free. This is not a project for a sewing beginner.