Well it's officially getting hot here in Southern Utah and I'm ready to get out the shorts! I decided instead of hitting the stores and spending way too much on only a few pairs of shorts; I'd save a few bucks by altering my worn out jeans and turning them into shorts.
Plus, these pairs of pants just happen to be my all time favorites and I just can't part with them. They are the only pair I own that fit just right. Why is it so hard to find a pair of jeans that actually fit right in the hips and rear? At the beginning of last fall I bought two new pairs of pants, which I was very excited about (I don't shop for clothes very often). Unfortunately, after wearing them for a few hours they became baggy! I can not stand when jeans do that!! They fit perfectly in the store, then somehow after wearing them for a few hours they are two sizes too big! Grrr!
Since these are my favorites the knees finally gave out and the hems at the bottom where frayed. So with a little TLC they can continue to be my favorites all summer long. :)
Here's what I did:
First I put on my jeans and marked how short I wanted the shorts to end up. I marked them by using a pin, if you look closely you can see them in the picture below. I wanted my shorts to be the Bermuda style.
(Sorry these pictures are a little off I used my hubbies computer to edit this time and it just isn't the same)
I knew I wanted my hem to be about 1 inch. So I cut 1 1/4 inch below my mark.
Then I turned my shorts inside out and folded and pinned the end up 1/4 of an inch all the way around and sewed in place.
Next, I folded and pinned the ends up 1 inch and sewed around again. This time I made sure to start and stop near the in seam so my back stitches wouldn't be as noticeable. Also I tried to stay as close to the edge at the top of the fold. Then, I sewed around again about 1/4th of an inch from my first line. I had to go slow to make sure my lines were nice and straight. For those of you who have a double needle for your sewing machine you wont have to worry about that and this step will be a cinch!! One day I will buy one.
Turn shorts right side out and the hem should look like this:
Do the same for the other leg and that's it!!
It took me an afternoon to complete two pairs of jeans. I was so pleased with the results that I've decided to do the same to my kids jeans that are worn in the knees but still fit in the waist. I haven't done it yet but it's definitely on the to do list. They seem to either wear out the knees or grow a few inches before they actually out grow the waist. What a huge money saver this is for the new season!
Hope you are all getting out and enjoying this amazing weather!
Bye for now!
Chelsea
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