I've noticed the lengths have gotten longer too. I have a 34" inseam and used to have to buy men's jeans, then when they came out with women's long, I got those. Now longs are too long many times and I know my legs didn't shrink!
My daughter is 5'3", size 5 currently and all her jeans are way too long-but being 16, she thinks that's cool.
Side note:
I used to work for a men's clothing manufacturer. When we got an order that we didn't have enough items per size to fill, we tore out the tags from sizes one up and one down, resewed tags with the size needed into the items and shipped them. So, for instance, if Macy's ordered 12 size 38 jackets and we only had 8, we'd switch two size 36's and two size 40's.
That brings me to this: Why aren't women's sizes based on chest and waist like men's? Unless we all buy from the LL Bean or Eddie Baurer catalogs, which have size charts, we're at the mercy of the makers of the clothes.
One might consider a 12 a large, another calls it an X-large. And is a 12 for a 36" chest or a 34" one? Also, because of my long arms, I generally have to stay away from long sleeved blouses or buy one slightly larger than I should if I want sleeves down to my wrists. For some reason, I don't have this problem with sweaters.
-----Added 19/8/2008 at 12 : 03 : 41-----
Just found this. It was written two years ago at least, but it covers what we're talking about pretty well.
Finding clothes that fit