Refashion Jeans into Side-Tie Shorts Tutorial

I am slowly sorting through my girls' winter clothes.  Miss Juju had a pair of jeans that were quickly becoming flood pants and my plan was to turn them into cut-offs for the summer.   I measured and prepared to cut, then stopped to examine the extra denim that would soon be tossed in the trash.  I didn't want to be wasteful and challenged myself to incorporate the extra fabric to add a little pizzazz to an otherwise boring pair of shorts.  I decided that side-ties would be a cute addition to the bow pockets on this particular pair of jeans.

Want to refashion your own pair?

Tools and Materials

• pair of straight leg jeans
• thread matching the stitching on the jeans
• ruler
• fabric marker
• scissors
• straight pins
• iron
• point turner
• seam ripper
• sewing machine with denim needle

Directions

1.  Measure and cut the jeans to the desired finished length. I chose to make these mid-thigh length because of school dress code.

2.  For the ties, cut four 4" wide strips from the jeans legs. Sew them together at the short ends to make two strips, then trim to the desired tie length. I made my ties roughly twice the distance around the leg opening of the shorts. If you aren't sure, just wrap the strip around the leg opening and eyeball it, keeping in mind that you will lose 1" of length to seam allowances.

3.  Fold the long edges of the strips 1/2" to the wrong side and press with an iron.

4.  Fold the short ends of each of the strips in half with right sides together and raw edges aligned. Pin and stitch with a 1/2" seam allowance.

5.  Turn the ties right side out. Push out the corners with a chopstick or point turning tool and press the ties flat with an iron.

6.  Next you will prepare the shorts for adding the ties. On the outer seam of each leg, measure up 3" from the leg opening and mark. Stitch back and forth several times over the mark, starting and stopping about 1/4" on either side of the seam.

7.  Pick the seams open, stopping at the reinforcement stitching.

8.  Fold the seam allowances back along the original seam line. Stitch them down close to the folded edge, getting as close as you can to the reinforcement stitching.

9.  Time to attach the tie. Find and mark the midpoints of the tie and leg opening. With midpoints aligned, sandwich the leg inside tie, butting the raw edge up against fold. Pin all the way around.

10.  Starting at one end of the tie, sew the upper edge all the way around the leg to the opposite end of the tie. Stitch approximately 1/8" from the folded edge.

11.  Sew the the lower edge of the tie all the way around, stitching approximately 1/8" from the folded edge.

12.  Repeat with the opposite leg. This is what the finished ties will look like.

Put on the shorts and tie the knots.  So cute!