A Shameful Refashion

For my second vacation refashion I decided to do something that I KNOW I am going to get razzed for when I go home. I made cutoff distressed shorts. I have numerous memories of my dad saying “it’s such a shame that they can’t afford to wear pants without holes” when looking at a “trendy” teenager. He fully knew that they had purchased the jeans with holes in them, but being a farmer that often put holes in his jeans without trying he would shake his head.

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I have wanted a pair of darker washed distressed shorts since doing the black doily blouse because I think that would be a nice outfit. I started out with these dark wash jeans. If I knew ANYONE who would fit them I would have gladly given them away because they were nice jeans, but because I found them at the goodwill outlet (where they had been passed over) for around $1 I

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This photo is my inspiration! If you would like to see the original blog it can be found here. The blog is Soraya Bakhtiar with photos by Lina Bessonova and the shorts are from Rag and Bone and can be found here. I liked these shorts because they were more of a Bermuda style and were somewhat baggy in the thigh. 

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From there I simply cut them off with plenty of length to be able to provide the wide cuff like the inspiration photo, then I went into distressing mode. There are plenty of tutorials that show graters used to distress jeans, but I decided to just use my seam ripper to cut the vertical strings. This was because I liked the look of the dark wash and I wanted them to keep some of their strength. I also decided that these straight leg mens jeans with a wide cuff just didn’t give the nice lose fit through the thigh. I guess this refashion wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought.

I decided to add in a triangle in the outer seam to make them nice and baggy. I thought I may mind the way they looked after but I don’t actually mind with the distressed vibe of the shorts. I tacked the cuff down using the existing seams and a few small stitches on the back to hold the shape.

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Confession time. I sometimes use my hair straightener to fix my hems. This hem was extremely messy after it came out of the wash. I have no room right now to set up my ironing board so out came the straightener.

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Ignore the doggie death stare he was far from impressed.

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Overall I am really happy with how they turned out! There is far less distressing on mine than the inspiration ones, but holes tend to get bigger over time so that was on purpose for the longevity (and perhaps less razzing). There is also no distressing on the back or the sides to prevent snagging on things while I’m sitting.

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As always till next time stay creative!

 

4 thoughts on “A Shameful Refashion”

    • sew892 says:
      Reply

      Thank you for your comment Sabrina! Here is a little tutorial:
      – Put on the shorts and mark where they would need to start getting bigger.
      – Then take them off and seam ripped up the outer leg seam to the mark you just made.
      – Then try them on again and measured how high the slit is and how wide the bottom of the shorts will need to spread (forming a sort of triangle) to make them loose.
      – Then I took one of the scrap legs that I had cut off and I cut it to those measurements forming the triangle. You could use any fabric it could look cool with sequence or a print!
      – Then I zig zag stitched the outside of the triangle. If you have a serger you can do that instead.
      – Then sew down the seam allowance on either side of the outer leg seam (the one that you first marked and had seam ripped ). This probably isn’t necessary, but it makes the fabric lay nice and flat and will give the shorts the nice double row of stitches seen on other seams.
      – After that it is as simple as laying the triangle under the leg and pinning it to the shorts then sew it on. I sewed it with both good sides up. Make sure to pin the triangle really well so it doesn’t move.
      This process may not look super pretty when viewing it from the back or rolling it up but with these distressed shorts I really don’t mind. Sorry for the long tutorial, but I didn’t want to leave a step out. I hope it works for you I know I hate when shorts fit tight in the thigh!

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