#47: Summer Shorts

I've got a problem. It's Summer and I want to wear shorts, but shorts just don't fit me well. They're either way too short, flatten out my derrière, or strangle the life out of my thick thighs. All the trendy shorts now days seem to basically be denim underwear. And most shorts at the thrift store are what I like to call "teacher shorts." You know, the baggy, pleated, long, high-waisted, elastic-waistbanned, light denim ones your elementary teacher wore.

Yep. Those are them.

So I decided to make my own. Assuming I'm not the only one with this type of problem, hopefully this post will lend some inspiration to those of you who share my difficulty with finding well-fitting shorts. 

I went searching for a pair of pants to turn into shorts, and found this pair at a thrift store for about $3. 

Before: Wide-legged jeans

This transformation is simple and definitely not original (I'm obviously not the first person to turn pants into shorts), but I figured out some tips that will make this simple transformation fit better and look more like actual shorts.

The first step is to find a pair of wide-legged jeans that fit your waist and butt. If you get a pair which tapers at the thigh (e.g. skinny jeans, bell-bottoms) it will make the leg hem even tighter, which for me feels and looks awful as it cuts into my thighs.

They should also have a pocket/button/zipper design which you like and will look good on shorts. For example, flared pocket openings, extra large back pockets, long zippers, and long front pockets don't look the best with shorts unless that's the look you're going for.

I thought these would work well.

Before: Jeans

Before: From behind

I tried them on, considered how short I wanted them, and put a pin in them several inches below my desired length. Then I folded them flat in half and cut off both legs straight across at the pin. After trying them on, I cut a little more off twice. It's way better to cut them too long and cut more off later than to cut them too short the first time. 

Cutting the length

Once I had removed enough length, I folded about 1 1/2 inches of the bottom of the shorts legs up twice. You could also tease the bottom or wash right after cutting and fold it just once if you want the frayed look. 

Folding up the shorts legs

After making sure they were even and the length I wanted when trying them on, I ironed flat the folds.

Ironing

Finally, I took a needle and thread and hand-sewed a few stitches on the outside seams of the legs in order to keep the length of the folded hem. (Don't stitch the inside leg seam or it will be too tight when you walk.)

Quick stitches

And that was it...really. 

Here again are the pre-transformation jeans:

Before: Wide-legged jeans

And here is my Summer-shorts transformation:

After: Simple, well-fitting Summer Shorts

 

After: From Behind

Keeping it simple made for a great outing to the Los Angeles X-Games last night!

Kids catchin' air

Moto-X!

Rampin' it up!

She shoots, she scores!!!

 

X-Games 2013!!!

So glad I was able to go hang with my honey at the last LA X-Games. Sad that the games will be moving out of state next year : (

I'm also glad I finally have a pair of fresh, well-fitting shorts for the rest of Summer, and all for $3 and about 20 minutes! Yay!!

Hope this post helped some of my fellow thick-thighed, round-rumped readers out there :)

Until next time, blessings.