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Thrifty Wife Happy Life

Helping women love what they wear on a budget

How to Wear a Dress After you Shrink it??

March 2, 2018 by Katie Haller

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || How to wear a dress after you have shrunk it in the dryer?I am totally guilty of shrining my clothes in the dryer.  No matter how hard I try to pull certain pieces of clothing out of the washer to hang dry, one always gets left behind.  Sometimes I get lucky and it doesn’t shrink up, but every once in awhile that cute summer dress I bought turns into a tunic.  So what do you do with your clothes when that happened?  Do you get rid of them, or do you try to still wear them?  For me, I try to still wear them.  I hate to get rid of clothes that still have life left in them.

Today I want to share 3 ways that you can wear a dress after it’s been shrunk in the dryer.  This dress below was from my fill-a-bag sale at Goodwill a while ago.  After I picked out a few cute things that I wanted, I just started stuffing clothes in the bag without trying them on.  I picked out this striped dress and when I tried it on at home, I realized that someone must have shrunk it in the dryer and ended up giving it away.  Well, I always believe that someone’s trash can be someone else’s treasure, and since the dress was basically free, I wanted to get some use out of it.  Here are 3 ways that I like to wear my shorter dresses.  

1.)  Wear it with tights.  I love the look of tights in the winter.  They might be uncomfortable, but they suck in your legs and smooth everything out, making your legs look flawless.  When I add tights to this dress, I feel like it gives it a Parisian look. 
Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || Stripe dress with black tights and booties

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || Stripe dress with black tights and booties

2.) Wear it with leggings.  Wearing this dress as a tunic with leggings gives it a more casual feel.  I love throwing on leggings and boots under a dress for work.  It always gives the appearance that I dressed up, but really I feel like I’m wearing pajamas. 
Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || dress with leggings and boots

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || dress with leggings and boots

3.) Risk it and wear it on its own.  Sometimes in the summertime, it gets so hot that I don’t care how short my dress is.  If you do wear a short dress, I recommend wearing it with flat shoes.  I also like to wear some shorts under my shorter dresses.  What I do is take an old pair of leggings that I never wear and cut them to wear as bike shorts under my dresses.  This is a great trick for moms with little ones and definitely teachers, specially preschool teachers!

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || Stripe dress with flats and denim jacket
Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || Stripe dress with flats and denim jacket

*This post contains affiliate links.

So there you have it.  There is no need to get rid of a dress that you really love just because it shrank up in the dryer.  Try out these tips and see how you like them.

If you don’t have any cute dress that you’ve shrunk up on your own.  Here are some fun stripe dresses that you could style up.  All under $20!!

ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR | FIVE | SIX | SEVEN

Related posts:

Default ThumbnailHow to Style Tights For Winter Default ThumbnailStyling the Perfect Spring Dress Default ThumbnailHow to Wear Leggings

Filed in: Affordable Fashion, Making the Most of your Wardrobe, outfits, Thrifty Tips • by Katie Haller • Leave a Comment

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Hi I'm Katie! Welcome to my blog! I am on a mission to help women build a wardrobe that they love without spending a lot of money doing it. I believe that everyone has the right to feel good in their outfit, no matter what your budget is! I am excited to have you here!
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thriftywifehappylife

Affordable everyday petite (5’1) mom style
A mix of affordable retailers + thrifted fashion
👨‍✈️Wife + Mom of 2 💙💗
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