Easy Clothing Hacks for Petites

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No one likes ill-fitting clothes. When I buy something online or even in person, I want to make sure that it will fit me perfectly. That doesn’t always happen. Measurements aren’t always accurate online and sometimes a “S” in one brand isn’t a “S” in another brand. That leaves me with a ton of money spent and clothes that I’ll never wear. 
That ends now! Today, I will be sharing some easy clothing hacks for Petites to get your clothes to fit perfectly without spending a whole lot of money to fix them. There will be some hand sewing required, but it’s very minimal, I promise!

1. Double Sided Tape
Perfect For: Long hemlines (shirts, sleeves, pants, dresses and skirts)

Hemming can be painful. If you’re using a sewing machine, the hem can be awkwardly obvious if you’re not using the exact thread color or if the stitching is too close. If you’re hemming by hand, it comes out perfect, but it’s so tedious and time consuming. Using double-sided tape is the perfect solution. They last a really long time if you get a good brand and they’re easy to apply.

If you’re looking for a good brand to buy, check out Fashion Forms and Misguided.

Instructions are below for how to use the clothing tape. Cut the appropriate length and tape it onto the fabric. Remove the white strip and fold the hem to desired length. Then, press down hard to make sure it sticks. Finally, iron the hem to make it flat and voila, you’re done!

2. Elastic Band
Perfect For: Clothing that’s too big or too long in length

Elastic bands are a god send. If your outfit has one, you can take advantage of it and adjust your clothing without needing to sew or change anything. Simply tuck excess fabric underneath the fabric. YES, it’s that simple! If your pants are too long, tuck an inch of fabric under the elastic band. It will lift up the pants in a natural way. This also goes for dresses and shirts as well.

In the Before & After below, you can see the jumpsuit is a bit baggy on me. The before photo is a bit blurry, but it sags a bit on the pants as well. Once I tucked the excess fabric under the elastic band, it fits much better. the waist isn’t as baggy, but it’s still defined. The pants don’t sag anymore. See more of my floral jumpsuit here, or buy the Target Floral Jumpsuit here.

Tuck it in! That’s all it takes!

3. Clothing Sew-On Snaps
Perfect For: Long straps (thick or thin)

Long straps are the worst. You end up flashing your cleavage to anyone and everyone, especially if you’re small like me. If you’re really tall, you can probably get away with it, since well, you’re taller than everyone else. For those of us who aren’t 6 feet tall, clothing sew-on snaps are our savior. They’re really easy to sew on, they’re really sturdy and they work perfectly.

You can always sew the straps together to shorten the length, but hand-sewing that will be messy and can easily come undone. Plus, it doesn’t look as neat and stray threads can come loose in the wash, regardless of whether you use your hands or your sewing machine. Clothing snaps don’t have these issues.

‘Before’ pictures of my shirts
Follow the tutorial below for shortening your straps. For thin straps, you’ll only need one clothing snap, but for thicker straps, you might need several. You can buy clothing snaps from Amazon. My go to is the Dritz(R) Black Sew-On Snaps – Size 3/0 12/Pkg(I always buy all my sewing related supplies from Dritz). 
After, this is how my shirt looks! Perfect and ready to wear. You can’t even tell it’s been adjusted unless you look closely enough. Clothing snaps for the win!

4. Belt
Perfect For: Clothing that’s too big or too long in length

Belts are just as perfect as elastic bands. They’re easy to use and can hide excess fabric easily. Depending on how big your dress, shirt or skirt is, you might be hiding the belt completely, which means you can wear a crazy belt with your outfit, and no one but you would know! Same as the elastic band, tuck the excess fabric underneath the belt. The other option is to pull the excess fabric up and drape it over the belt, like below. My white tank shirt is waaaaaay too long, it’s pretty much at my knees, which is really unattractive. With the use of a black belt, I turned it from a long baggy shirt to a cute draped shirt I can wear to work!

Do you have any clothing hacks you use to fix your clothes? Share your tips & tricks below!







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