What I used:
Old jeans or shorts
Lace trim (mine was from an old cami top)
Sewing machine
Pins, thread color of choice
Stitch-ripper, scissors
Yesterday I was in a sewing mood! I've been seeing some really cute new fashions/styles lately that I would love to create for the coming warm season. I've also been looking forward to Spring lately and this is a good way to spend some time creating new clothes that will get me even more excited to wear once it's warmer.
I had a pair of jeans that had never fit me well. I don't know if they shrank or what, but they were too short even when wearing flats (although I am only about 5' and 1/2"). Last summer I cut the legs off to make them into long shorts, but as shorts, they were too tight in the leg-holes. I cast them aside for a possible later project.
After trying them on and folding them out to the desired length and pinning (with them on in front of a mirror to be sure of length), I ripped out a couple inches of the outer seam to allow more leg-room. *NOTE: If you are cutting jeans, don't cut too short! You want to leave them at least an inch longer than you will want your finished shorts to be. See the picture below...see how I left extra fabric before I did final cuts? This is an important step.
Next I trimmed the excess material right above my pins. Because my jeans are dark, I didn't want the contrast between the jeans and the white lace to be too stark. So I hemmed them with the inside of the jeans folded out with white thread. I wanted a semi-deconstructed look between the dark jean color and the lace, a mild "ombre" effect. And I left the edge raw instead of rolling it under for even more of the look I was going for (it will fray mildly with use). Be sure to use a zig-zag stitch for this so fraying doesn't get out of control later on.
Now for the lace. I had an old white lace-trimmed tank/cami that I no longer wore. The body of it was no longer a crisp white and it was rather short in the torso. So I cut and stitch-ripped off the lace trim to use for this project! I love that the project was almost free (save for the electricity I used to operate my sewing machine
). And I'm going to use the discarded portion of that shirt for another project.
*Note: I took this right after cutting the lace from the cami. I still had more stitch-ripping and cutting to do after this pic was taken to get straight, usable lengths of lace for the trim.
I tried on the shorts again and placed the lace both under and atop the bottom edges to see what would look best. I decided to put the lace atop, as close to the edge as possible. You can pin the lace if you'd like; I didn't because my lace was stretchier than the jeans and I just slowly kept re-positioning it as I went. I used a straight-stitch for this part, carefully sewing the smaller-scalloped side of the lace onto the very bottom edge of the shorts. I wanted the larger scallops on the bottom. If your lace has different edges like mine did, be sure to match them on each leg; you don't want to realize the oversight later on and have to rip out the stitches and re-sew the lace on the right way.
See how the raw hem is slightly frayed above the zig-zag stitch? I kind of pulled at it to make it do that. With use it will fray more.
Here is how they look on from behind. I'm kinda sticking my tush out a bit to get a better shot of the shorts. Hopefully they will look nice with a loose, breezy summer shirt. The jeans/lace go up a bit on the sides; sorry I don't have a picture of that. It gives it even more of a feminine flare.
I've thought about adding more lace on the pockets to cover the design there, or maybe to the edges of both the front and back pockets. For the time being, I am happy with them.
I'm not going to lie, I was freezing cold during this project!
Now, warmer weather, where are you? :::Outside my window, snow continues to fall from the gray sky:::
The winter blahs have been setting in, but this project lifted my mood!
