Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Waist Extender - Easy DIY to make Pre-Pregnancy Pants Fit Longer

I admit, with my second pregnancy, I’ve been less than excited about buying maternity clothes. I would much rather buy regular size clothes or baby items, because I just don’t love maternity clothes and you don’t wear them for very long. I would be happy to wear the same items I purchased when pregnant with my first, but I was pregnant during hot summer months and now I’m pregnant during winter. Super cold temperatures don’t mix well with maternity shorts and tanks. So I came up with a way to make my pre-pregnancy pants fit a little longer with one unexpected hair accessory, a ponytail holder!

Get out a ponytail holder. Put it through the buttonhole of your pants.

Next put the right side through the opening of the ponytail holder on the left side.

This makes a secure loop that acts as an extended buttonhole.
Since ponytail holders are stretchy you even have a little give making it more comfortable. This extra room allows me to to wear my regular jeans longer than should be possible, even as my baby bump grows.

In the pictures, I used a bright orange ponytail holder so you can see it.  I typically choose a navy blue or black hairband. They blend the best with my jeans as I really don’t want this to stand out. Although your shirt should cover it, so you can just use what you have.

If you really love a pair of jeans, you may not want to try this technique since it may stretch out the top more than you would like and not go back for postpartum use. I'm using a pair of jeans that look nice, but aren’t my favorite, so I won’t be upset if they get stretched out and don’t fit as well after pregnancy. Since I still have a few weeks to go, I haven’t tried these jeans on postpartum to see if they are in good shape when I’m back to my normal size.

Note: You may be able to try this with a rubber band. I never tried it, because I had extra ponytail holders in different sizes on hand and they work so well!

I know this tip won’t work for everyone, but I thought I would share since it worked so well for me.

1 comment: