Summer Shorts from Old Jeans Refashion Sewing Tutorial

Do you ever feel like you look awesome, but then something puts you back in your place? I was dropping my son off at daycare, feeling kind of pretty in a tank top and tighter fitting pair of jeans I haven’t worn in a while. His teacher says, “I love your outfit! It’s so early 2000s”…

…. oh boy. I wasn’t going for early 2000s, but my jeans are definitely from that time period. They are low rise.. and if they are that recognizable as being out of fashion, it’s time to change them up! I’ve been needing a new pair of summer shorts for gardening around the house and this sounds like the perfect pair of jeans to cut up! Refashion, here we go!

Read on for the full tutorial!

Material:

• jeans to cut up
• an existing pair of shorts as a guide
• matching thread
• sturdy needle!

The skinny:

This is an easy peasy tutorial. It doesn’t solve the problem of the low rise waistline, and with jeans that taper in on the legs, you have to cut slits on either leg to allow room for the hems to fold up. However, it does provide a pair of shorts to kick around the house and camp in, and it makes this mom of two feel more productive!

Step by Step:

1. Try on your jeans and mark where you want the shorts to fall. Alternatively, you can just copy the length of a pair of shorts, which is what I am going to do.

Mark the line with pins or chalk.

2. Button your jeans and fold them in half with the front side facing out.

I’m going to sew in a permanent hemline like the shorts I’m copying have, because I really like that feature. The final hemline measures 1 ¼” wide. So, I’m going to add an additional 2 ½” to the final length I want the shorts to be, and draw a line there.

3. Cut the jean legs off with scissors. Because the jeans were tighter around the upper leg, I’m going to cut a 3 ½” slit up along each side hem (4 slits total), to give the hem room to fold up.

4. Make sure to use a denim sewing needle, and sew a zigzag stitch around the bottom of the shorts. Make sure to sew up and around each slit on each side.

5. Fold the hemline up so that the bottom of the hem folds up 1 ¼” wide. Make sure to fold it flat, and stitch along the side slits to tack it in place. There may be a gap between the folded hem on the sides, and that’s okay.

If desired, press in place with an iron to get nice and straight hemlines.

6. Fold it up again so that the ironed bottom of the hemline is at the top of the slit lines on the legs. Iron the hemline again and stitch in place.

All done! New summer shorts!

My housekeeping notes:

Denim/Jeans 16 (100) Needle: settings, 03, 5.0, 2.5