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.