How to rock a shirt tied around your waist when you have curves

Dress. Chambray. Similar Scarf. Vans. 

My favorite outfit in 5th grade was jeans, a tee shirt and my Gap sweatshirt tied around my waist. And I, legitimately, only wore the sweatshirt to tie it around my waist. However, 5th grade me was a string bean and pulled that look off very well. 25 year-old-me isn't a string bean, and although the 90's trend came back I haven't been as on board with it as I was back in the day. 

For the longest time I've avoided the shirt tied around the waist because I thought it would make me look heavier. Adding bulk to your waist and butt does not sound like a good plan for curvy girls, but I decided to give it another shot since I absolutely love the look!

I have a few tips on how to rock this look when you're not  a size two. 

1. Opt for thinner fabrics. My 9 year old hip-less self could pull off a bulky sweatshirt, but I would not do that today. I love that a chambray shirt is light enough to tie up without looking like I have 10 extra layers of fabric on. (I also love it with plaid!)
2. Don't double knot the sleeves. I'll be real with you guys, I'm not at the weight I wish I was, so when I tie the sleeves around my waist my first thought is, they don't wrap around me enough and people will notice and know how fat I am. I loosely tied the sleeves in this look and I ended up liking it a lot more than double knotting it. The sleeves still look long, which hides the fact that my waist isn't tiny. Plus it's not digging into me and I just feel better about that. 
3. Roll the top of the shirt under. This may be more of a petite thing than a curvy thing, but if I just tied this around my waist normally then the bottom of the shirt would have hit me in the calves. Instead I rolled the top of the shirt under up to the armpits. this also helped make the sleeves skinnier, which helped it not take up half of my torso. 
4. Tie it around your natural waist. I loved pairing the shirt with a dress because it allowed me to tie the shirt around my natural waist instead of my hips. Adding more layers to my biggest area would only make me look heavier. Your natural waist is where you are the skinniest and knotting the shirt there can even help accentuate it instead of making you look bulkier. 

I love how the shirt tied around the waist makes any outfit look more laid-back. I'm so glad I didn't give up on this trend because I seriously love it! What trends are you afraid of? Have you found a way to make them work for you?