We received this wonderful style tip from one of our readers and would love to share it with the rest of our readership! Rebecca M. wrote in with a simple, yet perfect, style solution for too-long belts. In her own words:
“I was trying a big belt over a t-shirt and discovered that when buckled, the end of the big stiff leather belt kind of sticks out from my side! The excess piece of leather is too thick to tuck in over the top of the part that is cinched around my waist.”
Rebecca M.’s solution is as follows:
“So, I dug out a Clear Goody Ouchless Mini-Elastic Hair Band from my hair accessories box. I unbuckled my belt and slipped the elastic over the buckle end of the belt, and moved it to my side. I then threaded the belt through the buckle and fastened it. From there, I simply took the excess piece of belt strap and slipped it under the clear band. Voila! The extra belt strap is now held close to my waist, and the clear band holding it is barely visible!”
If you have a style tip to share, email us! We would love to hear from you!
I’ve done this for years! Only I use the normal cloth covered hairbands and match the colors. It works great!
Nice trick! It looks great and works really well with clear elastic bands. For skinny belts, I like to do this trick:
http://www.youlookfab.com/2008/09/08/the-skinny-belt-shortening-trick/
WHat a great tip! I def need to go get some of those clear hair ties…
Thanks, Angie, I’ve done the tucking the end in and having it point straight down, but never the “knot” effect! I will have to try that, it looks great!
Great idea! Definitely keeping this in mind.
Thanks for sharing this tip! It’s so simple and yet I never thought to try it.
I’ve done the tucking and the colored rubber bands (never the clear – will have to try that too), but in the last 6 months have started taking my belts to the alterations shops to shorten. They only charge from 3 to 5 bucks to undo at the buckle, cut a few inches off and sew it back up. I make sure it’s cut so that I can wear it on my waist or in pant loops if needed.
I’ve been doing this for a while now too – It’s such a easy fix. I have the clear ones and black ones and I just leave them attached to the offending belts so I don’t have to go digging for one.
I needed this tip last week but great to know for the future! Thanks and love the site!
i used this trick today after finding it on this blog — so many thanks for sharing!
i have quite a drastic size difference between my waist and my hips, so if a belt fits one, it wont fit the other (i have a terrible time finding belts that are large enough to fit around my hips)
using this trick, i can now use my longer belts around my waist. since there is no hole in the belt where i need it, i just skip putting the belt through the buckle and, instead, slide it through the beltloop provided on the belt (near the buckle). all excess is held taught by the hair elastic.
using this trick, you can use just about any belt on any part of the body!
Love this tip!
I’ve used double-stick tape, in a pinch. Hairbands are definitely better, but I had a buzzcut and therefore no hair accessories.
[...] wouldn’t work with S.’s white belt from yesterday). For these thicker belts, you could use either a clear rubber band or a rubber band in the same color as your belt, as suggested by one reader last [...]
some great ideas, however I think this idea might beat the above hands down. If your belt is too long then try an eFABE belt loop, keeps the end of your belt in place, fits thin to wide belts and you can fit it in seconds. :-)
efabe.co.uk