What's Going Down

Friday, March 19, 2010

Ready for Summer.

It has finally warmed up here in Florida. I suppose that's a little odd for those of you in colder climates. To you, we've always been warm, but frankly, this winter was the coldest weather we've had in the 4.5 years we've lived here.

But "Winter" is gone thankyouverymuch. And with the arrival of 70 degree weather, we've cast off our long pants and sneakers in exchange for shorts, capris and flip flops. Wahoo!

The moral of this story is that the end of "Winter" left me with a pile of these.


Almost every pair of jeans the girls own have at least one knee with a monster-sized hole in them. At least one of those pairs was brand new as of three weeks ago. Grrr...
As I am not yet ready to part with a large portion of my daughters' wardrobe, we're going to be sporting the fancy cutoff thing this summer.

And truly, this is basic, but I'm sharing how I did it. Consider yourself tutorialized.

Need:
Ratty Jeans with Holey Knees
Cute Fabric (I used a fat quarter)
Thread


First, I measured the leg width where I planned to cutoff the pants. Double that. Then double THAT. That's the width for the fabric that you'll need.


Pick your saucy fabric (this one is a Michael Miller print).


Go ahead. Cut em off!


Take your rotary cutter and cut your fabric. If you're cool like me, you're using your sweet quilting ruler that has been broken by your children who were riding it around on the tile as a skateboard.



I cut a 22 inch by 3.5 inch for each leg, but obviously, these numbers are custom for you. Go ahead and iron the strips in half.


(Um, so this is the part where you ignore that my fabric just changed, because I made two pair and forgot a bunch of pictures the first time, so I took them when I made the second pair.)

Open up the fold you just ironed, and with right sides together, sew the short sides together.



Refold along the ironed, uh... fold. You now have a loop.


Now, with your sewing machine stitch length the longest it will go, sew a basting stitch as close to the top as you dare, I did it just under a 1/4th of an inch.



With the right sides together, matching raw edges, and seams, pin your loop to your shorts.


I matched the seam of the loop on the inside leg of the shorts and then found the middle of the other side of the loop and pinned it to the outside leg seam. Does this even make any sense?

Now, pulling your top thread, gather it up. Pin frequently to hold it place.

Making sure to reset your stitch length to a normal length (which I forgot to do three times), sew your ruffle on. I made sure to sew just below where my gathering stitch was, so it wouldn't show on the right side.

Okay, I guess you could be done here, but I wanted to be sure my ruffles laid the way I wanted. Turn your pant leg inside out and flip the ruffle down. Stitch the seam allowances towards the pants.

Did I mention you're done?



Well, as soon as you do the other leg.

And that whole other stack of pants.

Aren't they just the cutest thing ever?! I'm contemplating adding a ruffle to the bottom of some of my shorts just because!

This may or may not be a picture of my 4 year old son, wearing his sisters pants, because I needed them modeled.

This little project only takes maybe a half hour, unless you have to stop to feed babies, make lunch or change diapers. Good luck to you.

21 comments:

Unknown said...

So so fun! You don't know me, but I LOVE your blog! Cute family! Fun stories! Thanks for sharing!

sheri said...

Dude, I am SO forwarding this tutorial, some cute fabric and Kelly's jeans to my mom so she can sew her these awesome cut-offs for summer! WOOT!

Cheri said...

Okay. I just I just did this big BAH! laugh out loud when I read the part about Miles, because I had just thought, "Wait a minute. They look like capris, not shorts. How would you manage to get a hole in the shin?"

Now it all makes sense. They look awesome. Miles is going to love you more, the older and more aware he gets....

Ruth Solter said...

Dang!! Those are cute!! Think I could do that for me?! Wouldn't I just look cute in those at work? I mean capri length like Miles? seriously, great job!!

Audrey said...

cute, cute! love that miles is your model :)

Sabra at Sew a Straight Line said...

my quilting ruler is broken like that, too. only my boys were using it as a bridge across the kitchen stools, and it dropped on the tile.
CUTE CUTE cut offs. Since all but one pair of my jeans have holes in the knees, maybe I should do some for me?

Almost Always said...

these are super cute! what a great way to stretch the life on a great pair of jeans!
xo

Kim said...

or you're home-ec-ily challenged. :(

These are ADORABLE and I so wish I could whip them up in 30 minutes. But, I know me...it would take me a month and then I'd still only have one leg done.

Luckily, ripped, holey jeans are in fashion now so my girls don't have to worry about their mother's lack of sewing skills.

ba and the boys said...

i wish you had been my mom...i would have been so cool...

likeschocolate said...

I can't tell you how many pairs of jeans my boys wear end up with holes in the knees, it is too bad I can' just add a little fabric bling. Oh well. Great idea though!

Company EIGHT said...

LOVE these!!! I think *maybe* even I could do it. :)

Ambrosia said...

We have the exact same jeans with the exact same holes. Perhaps if I just blindly follow your instructions with gusto (without doubting my own ability ), I will be successful. I have NOTHING to lose for sure. LOVE IT! My girls would too.

Resweater said...

Too cute! Your "This may or may not be a picture of my 4 year old son, wearing his sisters pants, because I needed them modeled." made me LOL!

Jamie said...

Those are so cute! Thanks for the tutorial. :)

Jenny said...

Any suggestions for jeans that you pop the zipper on because you were anxious to fit into your pre-prego jeans...lol.. just kidding. I love them!

Zeenat said...

I am so doing it for my son, err.. with some plaid fabric ofcourse and minus the ruffles! He has atleast 5-6 pairs of jeans with hole in the knee like that!!

Janni said...

I linked to your blog through several other blogs, and am in love. I think this project is BRILLIANT!!!
Thank you for putting it out there for us.

Janell said...

Thanks for the great idea. I made some! Here's a link:

http://sparepages.blogspot.com/2010/04/salvaging-hole-y-jeans.html

MyLinda said...

Those are SO cute!! I'm going to try my hand at some for my daughter and maybe even a t-shirt with a little something something on it from the same fabric :-)

MyLinda said...

I did it...here's mine... http://mylindascraftsblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/cute-lexy-outfit.html

Thanks for the tutorial!!

Paula said...

Cute!!! Wish I knew how to sew! I'm from Florida too (Sarasota area) and I've lived here my entire life (only saw snow once a few years ago) and I don't remember a winter like this one! I think you were wrong, though, about it being over in mid-March. Didn't we have a few more cold snaps after that? It did go from winter to summer though seemingly overnight. No spring whatsoever this year.

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