Things are not as they appear

I have a thing for dresses that could be categorized as 'granny like',  see older post. I will be the first to acknowledge it, but no 12 step program is needed here folks. I picked up this gem at a thrift store without trying it on or any idea of how to wear it. Just the fact that I loved the print, the buttons and the price tag (lucky for me I scored it on a day with a half price color tag. Ah it's the little things in life.) Here is the dress in original form

Let's point out how many things we see wrong with this picture: the hem hits at a length that makes me shorter than I am (something I always have to watch since I'm nugget sized), the dresses' cinched waist is not sitting correctly to look cinched but sort of billowy, and overall the dress is too big (another thing of mine is to buy an item oversized and rework it but that is for another day). 

So what did I do, I added a huge men's belt and I hiked that sucker up above my knees. Problem solved. 

It works perfectly, if I may say so myself. Here's why: the dresses' own cinched waist acts as its own belt  for keeping the extra inches inside the dress itself and off the length. I would assume this is a universal tip for any dress built the same way with a length problem. Cheers to making it work. 

All items except for jewelry is thrift