Since I moved to Norway, I’ve had to be extra creative with my clothes. I packed a suitcase and a carry-on when I first moved and managed to bring a few more things when I visited my family back in August. Still, that is not a lot of clothes or shoes! The initial plan was to go on a road trip through Europe and pick up my stuff on the way back. Obviously, with all the covid restrictions, it’s not happening this year. But why would I buy new clothes when I have a closet full of them just waiting for me? Until I get reunited with my clothes, my go-to trick will be to layer a sweater over a dress as it gets colder.

You can layer a sweater over any dress

I mean, with the pandemic, I stopped wanting to wear jeans. They are not comfortable! Instead, I wear dresses all the time. I used to think you could only layer a sweater over some dresses. I was completely wrong. It works with most styles and it won’t look bulky! You just need to get the proportions right. Sometimes you’re lucky and the dress and sweater you want to wear work perfectly together as is. Sometimes you just gotta crop the sweater with the help of a belt or a hair tie.

How to crop your sweater

With a belt: tuck the front of your sweater into the belt OR wear the belt over your sweater then pull the sweater out until only the bottom remains stuck under the belt.

With hair ties: tie the front of your sweater like a small ponytail and tuck it under OR tie the sides of your sweater and tuck them in.

With your bra: wear your bra over your dress and tuck the bottom of your sweater in it.

Like I always say, wearing what we already have is the most sustainable option. Inviting our summer dresses into our winter wardrobes is a great way to avoid buying new clothes. I have some other tips in this post: here. Turns out it’s also wallet friendly. But the real question is: are you the kind of person who layers a sweater on top of your dress or under?