Cut-offs: Making Old Clothes New Again!

Spring is almost here, and it's about time!

If I never went outside or knew the weather, I would still know when spring was approaching by the telling signs in my kids' clothes.  Every year without fail, my kid's last good pair of jeans get a hole in the knee about a week before spring break.  That's how I know winter is over and it's time to start thinking about shorts.

I like to think of holey jeans as the cocoon phase in the life cycle of a pair of pants.  They are just one step away from emerging as a beautifully formed new creature: Cut-offs.

I know what you're thinking: not everything that comes out of a cocoon is beautiful.  (That's what you were thinking, right?)  So how do you make sure your old pants turn into butterflies and not just moths?

Boy Cut-Offs
Let's state the obvious: boys are different than girls.  So we expect different things from their clothes.  If a little boy rips a pair of jeans, you can cut the legs off in two seconds and PRESTO! you've got shorts!  They don't care about the little stringy things hanging down.  In fact, they probably like them.

They probably like moths better than butterflies too.

But what if mom cares?  Okay, it's still pretty easy to make shorts.  Just fold the edge under and stitch around the leg once or twice.  If you can sew a straight line you can make a pair of cut-offs.  Boys' clothes are just plain easy.

Girl Cut-Offs
Girls don't like moths.  They like butterflies.   So how do you make a pair of cut-offs into the butterfly of the pants world?

In a word: decoration.

If you own a piece of lace or ribbon, and can sew a strait line, you can make a super cute pair of shorts out of an old pair of pants.

The simplest way is to just stitch a ribbon to the bottom edge and be done.  The craziness of the loose fringe will be over shadowed by the cuteness of the ribbon. And the ribbon will help to keep the pants from fraying any further.

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Or fold the cuff up once and stitch a strip of ribbon on the same as before.  It makes the bottom cuff look cleaner but doesn't require any extra skill.

For an even cleaner finish, make a second fold so the raw edge disappears, and stitch a strip of lace around the bottom edge. Super cute shorts are just minutes away, and they couldn't be easier to make!

What are these? They look like pant legs that need to be tossed in the trash. But they aren't. They are quilt squares waiting to be discovered.  I always save the ends of my cut-offs for quilt squares and other projects!