Shrinking, stretching....I'm confused - Page 2

Well, the rule I go by is that I buy the smallest size I can button all the way up when they are brand new. On the 30s I ordered, I could get the first two buttons closed, but no matter how high I pulled the jeans, and how hard I tried, I couldn't get the others. Since I want them to become comfortable without being tight or loose, and I plan to wash them within a week or two (one wash on these gives a great deep blue color, w/o any fading), this seemed like the right fit.

The thing to remember with waist stretching is that the jeans will basically stretch as much as you're asking them to. In other words, if you buy a size that you can barely button up, then of course they're going to stretch 2" or so. That *doesn't* mean that if you'd bought the next size up that they'd *also* stretch 2"; you're only asking them to stretch one more inch this time, not two, so they're not likely to stretch to quite the degree that they would have if you'd bought them a size down. Basically, the waist on all my dry denim wants to stretch to about the size of my hips at their widest point, which makes sense, since the jeans have to stretch to get around them every day. You might want to size down one, but that's the most I'd recommend.

In other words, DarkNWorn's original recommendation is perfect.