Today I Played with an Old Pair of Jeans

Hey my dears! 

How are you all doing? Did everybody have a fun fourth of July? It's been soooo hot in my side of town! Plus, if you aren't from around here, let me tell ya, last week has been cuh-ray-zee! There was a severe thunderstorm on Thursday. We lost power that night and didn't get it back til yesterday. 7 days without power! Which also means 7 days without any crafting - I stayed at my boyfriend's house for a few days cos it's unbearable here at home (they got there power back within a day. Lucky!) So I didn't have any of my supplies.

So as soon as I learned that we got our power back, all I really wanted to do was sew. Oh my darling sewing machine, I missed you so much! I started the day with cleaning the basement which is also my crafting space and found a few pieces of clothing that I could reconstruct! Yay! First up was an old pair of jeans that's already too short for me (I choose to believe that I'm still growing taller at 25). 

I've been wanting to make shorts from old jeans but I didn't want it to be just plain so I grabbed my stash of zippers and found neon orange ones. Perfect! I had this vision of a distressed/ rugged pair of summer shorts so I didn't even bother making sure my lines were straight. A few snip, snips, sew, sews and a  few painful accidents with my pins (not required for this project - just me being me) later.......

Tada!!


I love how the zippers add a pop of color!

The zippers are about 6" and fully functional although I do not recommend wearing them with the zippers up! No, missy!

I wasn't able to take photos of the steps. I was debating whether I should do a full picture tutorial or not since it's pretty simple. 


Basically, here's what I did:


1. I put the pants on and marked how short I want them to be plus add 2" for the fold. If you're in doubt, add more allowance. It's easier to cut a little bit more later than end up with your shorts being too short!


2. Take the pants off and cut where you marked your fabric. Adjust if necessary. NOTE: Watch out for the pocket linings! If they're sewn in with the seam, you can cut it too and just sew it in with the zipper as well. What? No. I didn't forget about mine. My shorts don't have uneven pocket linings now. No, don't check)


3. Fold and pin the bottom in place.


4. Cut the sides where the seams are, as close to the seam as you can. Again, it's easier to give yourself some allowance and adjust later on than cut too much!


5. Pick a side to do first. Take your zipper and line up the bottoms and pin. Make sure you check if your zippers are pinned correctly that it opens up the right way - the zipper on the bottom when closed. I won't tell you how I decided to put that reminder here.


6. Sew around the zipper and then sew on the cuff as well. I decided to use a zigzag stitch rather than just straight ones to add to the rugged effect and to stop it from fraying (not sure how effective this is though)


7. Do it on the other side.


8. Cut off the excess zipper. And there you go!


Optional: I was thinking of distressing the front but I don't want it to look too heavy/busy. Thoughts?


I did a couple more projects with the parts I cut out. I'll share them next time. So what do you think?Are the instructions clear? Please let me know if you have questions. I can do a step-by-step picture tutorial if you guys want. I'm so sick of wearing jeans. I feel like cutting all of them up. 


Let me know!


Have a happy weekend!


<3,
Mary