DIY: Lace Trim Shorts

Once upon a time, a young lady had a stellar pair of Level 99 wide leg denim trousers that just weren't worn anymore.

With this brilliant idea to turn them into shorts, and no sewing machine at the time, she took them to an alterations place and explained the desired outcome to the expert...

OK, so she is me, and this cost me a pretty penny to have done. I figured a good pair of jeans would equal a good pair of shorts, and with lower cost than new shorts, so money well spent, right?

They looked so cute! Just as I had imagined with a pretty little turned up 1" cuff. Then, I tried them on.

Problem:

Maybe this wasn't her job, but the tailor could have told me that in creating the cuff that I wanted, the leg openings would tighten a bit. My legs looked like SAUSAGES inside these things! Not cute. Bad. Very bad. (I wouldn't share a picture of this even if I had one.)

Ripping out the beautiful, freshly sewn cuffs, I thought, oh well they'll just be cut-offs. Fine. Only not. Again, having zero knowledge of technique, I didn't know (but soon found) that underneath the cuff lied a mutilated cut. Notches sort of cut out of the sides.

I'd have to cut them even shorter to even them out. Take my word for it. No longer wearable for me. Daisy Duke and I have much different figures. And jobs. And lives.


Solution:

After many moons at the bottom of a drawer, I spied some precious lace trimmed shorts online, and was instantly inspired. Finding the right "lace" on an antique runner at one of my favorite Austin thrift shops was the missing piece to my puzzle, even though it isn't even true lace.

I started by clipping the corners off the runner and pinning them to the out & insides of the shorts, utilizing the triangle shape to give a smidgen of extra room in the legs. (Doing my part to rid the world of unsightly sausage leg.)

I spent a lot of time pinning, re-pinning, eye-balling, trying on, staring in the mirror, and getting stuck with pins to get the placement just right. What can I say, I'm a trial and error kind of gal.

Next, I clipped the straight edges, following the detail of the pattern. Upon careful surmising, I pinned these down along the legs, front and back sides. This part was much simpler than the corner pieces.

Once the placement was perfect and pinned in place, I machine sewed along the edge of the whole thing, and tacked the tops of the flowers down by hand so they would lay flat.





Last, I tacked in a little peek-a-boo piece to the left front pocket. Just for fun.



Whether your have jeans with a story, or you just want to DIY your own lace trimmed short- I say go for it!

P.S. If you live in Austin, no, shorts weather has not passed. :)