Turning old pants into shorts is one of the easiest upcycles ever, and one that I tend to practice every summer.
Because inevitably, every time summer comes around, I'm stuck with several pairs of kids pants from the previous season that I know will be to short to wear again in the following fall. If they are still in good condition (holes in the knees, they're OK too, you'll cut them out anyway), I usually turn them into shorts.
Of course you can do this both with boys' and with girls' pants, but I find it so much fun to work with girls' pants, because there are lot more possibilities for creativity.
I've made these a couple of weeks ago, and my daughter has been wearing them regularly since then. I started with an old pair of plain jeans:
I cut the pants legs and hemmed to the length I wanted for the shorts. Then all I did was to sew a hot pink lacy ribbon on the edges.
As an afterthought, I decided to add an iron-on applique I already had in my stash. The colors matched and the shorts look a lot better with it. At least from the perspective of a five year old girl.
It took me less than half an hour to do all this. Now she has one cute and unique pair of summer shorts and I still saved some money in the process. Win-win all the way!
For more ideas on how to reuse & upcycle kids pants, click below:
Enjoy,
