I can’t speak for your kiddos, but my boys have gone hog wild with the holes in their knees. Really Bradley? 5 pairs of pants (+ 2 pairs of church pants!). I blame it mostly on the long winter spent inside on his hands and knees for hours racing his cars. Both the boys shorts have been getting worn out from running around in them all summer, so I decided to take this massive pile of pants, and up-cycle them into more shorts! The fact that they can now wear these year-round in California is an extra bonus!
This tutorial is almost painfully simple. When I say 10 minutes, I mean 10 minutes start to finish, BAM. As long as it is during naptime. If the kids are up during this project we both know this is going to take longer than 10 minutes.
Here we go….
- Lay a current pair of shorts over the pants as a length guide if needed. I didn’t have much choice on the length, since it had to be right above the holes. I didn’t mind if some of the shorts ended up a bit shorter than others
- When cutting, aim your scisors at a slight angle so the sides are a tad bit shorter than the center. This will keep the sides from hanging too long when they are on.
Take a second and make a pretty pattern with your cut pants if you have a short attention span.
- If you are like me and suffer from ASD (anal seamstress disorder), go right ahead and serge around the edges of the shorts. If you couldn’t care less about a little fraying, move right onto hemming.
- Since the sorts were pretty much at a good length already, I only folded these under about 1/2″ once and stitched around the bottom. Feel free to turn under twice if you have enough length for it.
- I used a more sturdy needle when stitching on the jeans, just to be safe. The fabric wasn’t too thick, so it wasn’t an issue, but if you have thicker fabric, try using a sewing needle made for sewing on jeans to keep from breaking a needle.
That’s it! Now go let your kids roll around in the big pile of new shorts they now have.