Problems, solved

I've got some problems.

One of them is I'm tired of all my winter shirts! I feel like I say that at least once every year, but there's always good reason for it. Among many other bad things about winter clothing, it's just so dreary! My last several shopping runs, I've been searching diligently for warm tops and dresses that are colorful, graphic, and interesting...and I've come up with nothing. Maybe I've snagged a patterned skirt or two, but it seems that the fun prints for upper bodies are reserved exclusively for skimpy summer garments.

Speaking of which, let's talk about those skimpy summer garments, because I have a problem with them too! They are not cute. At least, not on me. Over the past several years, the fashion in sleeveless tops (as with most clothing) has run towards the wide and shapeless. Some girls might be happy draping a tent over their torsos, but I prefer some solid waist definition, lest I look like a particularly billowy telephone pole. The baggy look has been popular for so long, that it's hard for me to find any clothing that flatters my figure, even in the secondhand markets. In fact, I just recently received quite a large hand-me-down collection of tank tops, of which I wanted to keep almost nothing, because it all looked so bad on me. I sadly put a number of otherwise cute tops into my to-sell box over the past month and moved on with my life.

By "moved on with my life," I mean I continued shopping, unsuccessfully, for cheery clothes that I can wear in the winter. As I was scrolling through a sea of depressing solid and striped sweaters on Swap.com, I found myself thinking, "OK, there's nothing wintry that looks fun and cute, but surely I have some fun and cute tank tops I could layer under a cardigan or something." Surely is right...but naturally this solution begets another problem: if I wear my summer tank tops as layering pieces in winter, then I'll be bored with them come summer, and they'll never get to have the top billing they deserve.

In case you've lost count now, I had three problems: 1) winter clothes are boring, 2) wearing my summer clothes in winter would make the summer clothes feel boring, 3) so many summer clothes fit me badly. Once I thought of it like that, the solution to all three problems became obvious. I could wear the ill-fitting summer clothes as bottom layers in winter, because I'd never be able to wear them in summer anyway. When mostly covered by a blazer, even an unflattering tank top looks perfectly acceptable!

With that in mind, I went back through my to-sell box and retrieved two floral camisoles that I'd absolutely loved upon sight, but hated upon trying on. The straps had been too short, the U-shaped bottom hem made me look fat, and the lack of any kind of waistline did not help matters any. They also had these weird half-bras on the inside, which served no purpose but did tend to bunch up and show through the thin fabric. They were terrible when worn alone, but totes adorbz when partially covered!

I tried the lavender cami with a purple cardigan, but the whole outfit looked much better topped off with my grey checked blazer. I guess I'm back in the jacket game, because after a long hiatus, that's the second blazer-topped outfit in a week!

A little footnote: although it was easy enough to hide the frumpy shape of the camisole by wearing another layer over it, its extreme shortness remained an issue. For that, I utilized a technique I learned recently for permanently stretching elasticized materials.

Stretch your straps

To make straps longer, pull them to the limits of their elasticity, and then press firmly with an iron. They should stay more stretched even once they cool. This also is said to work on elastic waistbands and other items that had a bit of stretch already.

When all was ironed and done, I had added about an inch to the length of the straps, which made the whole camisole sit prettier. One more problem solved!