Pair together lots of patterned tops and comfortable bottoms with loose cardigans layered over the outfit. Your stoma may be harder to hide as it fills. Wearing layered clothing and patterns helps to cover the area. Wear a thin belt over a top or dress, right under your bust. This will create just enough visual variation in the top half your outfit to help hide your ostomy bag. As you're out and about, you may encounter situations where you can't get to a bathroom right away but your bag is filling quickly. Wearing a scarf or light jacket will help to cover the area more easily, hiding swollen ostomy bags until you can take care of them. Wear a light cardigan or kimono jacket over a tank top and jeans for a fashionably concealing effect. While it may be harder to wear the clothes you used to enjoy, you can still indulge freely in any pair of shoes you like! Make your shoes the centerpiece of your outfit by picking gorgeous pairs you may not have thought to wear before. Experiment with different colors and types.  A fabulous pair of shoes will also deflect attention away from your waistline and your stoma.  Wear a pair of bright red boots to set off an all black outfit! Lace-up flats are a fun and flexible shoe style that are suitable for many different settings. Hair decorations, jewelry, ties, and other accessories are not only great ways to express your unique style, but can keep attention off your stoma. Play around with a variety of accessories until you find something you like.  Pair a dark-colored, casual dress with a bright red hat. Wear a bright, patterned necktie with a semi-formal or formal outfit.
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One-sentence summary -- Layer your outfits to keep your stoma well hidden. Accessorize with scarves and jackets to hide your bag as it expands. Express yourself with a bold pair of shoes! Experiment with colorful and vibrant accessories.


Craft stores are the best place to find all kinds of different beads, buttons, and other cool things to make into stud earrings. Look for items that have a flat surface on one side. This will make it much easier to attach the items to the earring flatbacks. If using buttons for your earrings, you may want to paint over the button with some clear nail polish before gluing it onto the stud flatback. This will make the button shiny if it is a matte button. Let the nail polish dry completely before gluing it onto the stud. If you want to create your own beads to glue onto the earrings, then clay beads are a great option. Try getting some air drying clay in your local craft store and then shape the clay into bead to glue onto your earring flatbacks. You can use multiple colors of clay to create interesting designs in the clay. You can tie ribbon into a bow and then glue the bow onto a flatback for a cute pair of bow earrings. Look for ribbon that is narrow enough to tie into a small bow. Then, tie two equal length pieces of ribbon into bows and glue them onto the earring flatbacks. If you want to make a special pair of earrings for a holiday, such as St Patrick’s day, Halloween, or Christmas, then you can look for holiday themed pieces to glue onto stud earring flatbacks. Craft stores are the best place to find these kinds of items. For example, you could glue a four leaf clover charm onto an earring flatback for St. Patrick’s Day, or glue a jack-o-lantern piece onto an earring flatback for Halloween. You can make yourself a pair of holiday themed stud earrings for every holiday of the year! If you don’t want to buy any new beads or other notions to turn into earrings, then you can also convert your old, unwanted jewelry into stud earrings. Try taking apart old necklaces and bracelets and using the beads and charms to create stud earrings.  Be sure that you no longer want the item and that it is something you can break apart before you try to harvest the beads and charms from a piece of jewelry. Use scissors to cut the string holding the beads and charms together. Break apart the old jewelry over a bowl or other container to ensure that the beads do not go everywhere.
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One-sentence summary --
Look for beads and buttons in craft stores. Use clay to make your own designs. Make a pair of bow earrings. Create a pair of holiday themed earrings. Try using old jewelry.