This is weird; I’m hoping someone’s got some idea as to what might have happened. And since I don’t have the shirt in question anymore, I figure a factual answer will be impossible, so IMHO seemed appropriate.
Anyway:
A few weeks ago, my wife and I were visiting family in Orlando. One day I got up in the attic of my stepdad’s house to poke around through some old stuff; this being Florida, I was sweating like a whore in church. I was wearing a t-shirt, which got good and soaked with sweat.
So I took the shirt off and put it in my suitcase, and at the end of our trip we came home to Memphis and did laundry. When the shirt came out, the armpits of it–only the armpits–were somehow “stiffened.” It was as if they’d been coated with a semihard plastic, or as though the shirt’s armpits had been dipped in hot candlewax and then cooled in a refrigerator. That’s the best way I can think of to describe the texture of it.
There was nothing visible ON the shirt; whatever did this had soaked into the fibers somehow, apparently stiffening them.
The shirt was 100% cotton. It was exactly like this one, except that mine was dark green.
Anyway, my wife put some spot-cleaner on it–Shout or some such–and we ran it through the wash again. No change; whatever had happened was unaffected by laundering.
So I threw the shirt away, but it’s been preying on my mind. What the hell happened?
[ul]
[li]Did I, just for one day, begin exuding some kind of plasticine polymer through my armpits? [/li][li]Was there something in the environment that day that would react with my sweat, but only if there was a sufficient amount of it? That would sort of explain why the rest of the shirt wasn’t stiffened, anyway.[/li][li]Was it something inside the shirt itself all along, and finally the armpits, which take most of my sweat (I’m a sweaty guy and I live in a hot region) eroded away some kind of barrier that had hitherto been keeping the stiffness soft? I know, I’m reaching here.[/li][/ul]
I wish I’d kept the shirt so I could post a video or something. I really have no idea what this could have been, and it’s been bugging me. Help me out, Dopers! Whatcha got?