Looking for some comfortable and durable jean shorts? Why not use your favorite jeans with the worn out knee for some great DIY denim jean shorts?
Summertime is almost here! That means shorts are out and here to stay! Finding a good, comfortable and durable pair of jean shorts can be hard. Why not use your favorite jeans with the worn out knee for some great DIY denim shorts? Here is a super simple tutorial to make your own non-frayed denim cut-offs.
Maybe it’s just me, but I have a really hard time finding good summer shorts for my girls. There are so many great boys shorts in all sorts of good designs that are durable and match everything. For girls, I don’t love the leggings type material because the bum stains super easy and they usually run skin tight. I don’t particularly love the short shorts that cause a constant wedgie. I also hate when the jeans are frayed and get super long strings that the kids love to pull out. With all this, my girls still insist on wearing jean shorts!
When I rotate clothes out for the season, I usually chose to put away any pants that are in great condition and store them for the next kid. The pants that are even slightly wearing out in the knees are kept out until they get a good hole in them and then used for jean shorts. I usually only save the girls jeans since I can easily find such great boy shorts. The girls jeans I collected throughout the winter are then made into denim cutoffs. If you have a favorite pair of jeans, why not keep them around all year long?
DIY Denim Shorts
This pair of jean shorts is done with some little girl pants, but I have used the same technique for my own pants. Since I’m so tall, I have a really easy time finding too-short jeans and will use this same concept to take those pants and turn them into capris.
Grab your favorite pair of hole-in-the-knee jeans.
Cut across right above the hole.
Fold pants over or use the cut off piece as a pattern to make the shorts the same length on each leg.
Roll the hem once.
I usually do between 3/4″ and 1 1/2″ hem depending on where the hole was at. Measure all the way around so it is even.
Roll one more time and pin.
Again, I’m not super particular about how big the hem is as long as it is uniform all the way around and on both legs. In this picture I have the two pant legs on top of each other to make sure they are the same length.
Top stitch around.
You can choose any color of thread you want. Use a bright color to make a statement, or if you don’t want it to show too much, use a darker color. I used grey because it was what I already had in my sewing machine. It works, and I didn’t have to rethread my machine!
Ta Da!
And there you have a pair of amazing diy denim jean shorts! This will help you get a little more wear out of your favorite pants, or save you money and time searching for shorts for your kids!
How do you make denim shorts?
If you want more easy sewing tutorials, check out our “super sheets”. The life-changing way we make beds around here! You might also enjoy my easy baby blanket tutorial. This is my go-to baby gift every time!
