Time: about an hour
Cost: $0 — $3
Materials:
- Masking tape
- Sewing machine with thread (optional). ARTica in Norris allows students to use its sewing machines for just $3!
- Loose pair of old jeans you’re okay with chopping short
- Needle and thread
- Scissors
Steps:
- Put on jeans. Create a new hemline: while standing up, wrap masking tape around both legs (so there’s a consistent line). When you make a full circle, rip the part between your legs and wrap the extra tape around each leg. You’ll be cutting here and rolling up to create cuffs, so be lenient.
- Take jeans off (and change into a different pair of pants. Or not). Cut by masking tape (so the masking tape is still on the top part of the jeans. You can throw away the legs of the jeans — unless you’d like to recycle them more. Be creative!
- Take off masking tape.
- Optional: Create a new hem by folding over the bottom of each leg, pinning to create a new line. Sew on machine (and be careful when sewing on top of the seams).
- Another option: If you’d like a frayed edge, you can sew a hem without folding the fabric over. Hem fairly close to the edge and machine-wash afterwards. This will allow the fabric to fray, and the frayed edge will stay contained without your hemline shrinking. If you do this, I’d imagine you’d like your shorts shorter.
Beware, though: you can always shorten the length, but you can’t add more.
- Put shorts back on. Roll up to desired length (either once or twice) and pin. Please be careful when pinning!
- Make notches (carefully cut a tiny bit from the sides) to make pants looser.
- Loosely hand-sew the new cuffs into place. Hand-sewing is tedious, but it can be cleaner than on a machine. You can also just tack in (sew one stitch multiple times) the cuffs in a few places, such as by the seams, to get them to stay.
Step 1. Photo by author.
Step 2. Photo by author.
Step 4. Photo by author.
Happy wearing!