Sarah's Real Life

When: early December // Weather: 30s // Real life: work

I’m not usually one to bring you “life hacks,” but hot damn do I have a good one so I have to share. I’m sure I’m not the first person to do this, but I did come up with it independently, so I’m pretty proud of myself.

Here was my dilemma: I like to layer sweaters over dresses, but as a vertically challenged person with a small frame, it can look frumpy, especially with a longer dress. Now if the sweater is cropped, magical optical illusions happen and I look tall and fabulous. (This is my life goal.)

But how do you make a non-cropped sweater looked cropped when you can’t tuck it in to anything? (Imagine me saying this into the camera in black and white, infomercial-style.)

Here’s what I did – I took an old pair of tights with runs in it, and cut off just the waistband. Boom. Instant belt already snugly fitted to my waist. I put that over the dress, then tucked the sweater up and under. This also works when you have a skirt that’s too thin or fitted to tuck normally.

Hey, I didn’t say it was fancy, just that it was good. It might work with a “regular” belt but you’d have to make a belt pretty tight for it to hold, which wouldn’t be very comfortable. And it wouldn’t be as cool and resourceful.

So there it is – my one and only life hack. Hope you enjoyed.

similar Dress // similar Sweater // Boots // similar Bag // Earrings