Seek Joy: Making Clothes You'll Love

PSA #1. I am not a seamstress, and # 2. This is not a tutorial. I have just enough knowledge about sewing to get into mischief. For some reason, things always work out in the end. Perhaps it’s because I don’t mind the imperfections and am just pleased to have finished. Either way, it all started with a pair of thrifted jeans.

Once upon too many years ago, the cost of women’s jeans exceeded $100, and I refused to ever pay for a new pair again. My biggest claim to thrifting fame was purchasing three pairs of jeans, tags still on, for under $12. And then I found ThreadUp.

ThreadUp saved me the inconvenience of visiting multiple thrift stores, hoping to find correctly fitting jeans, often going home empty-handed. I could sit on the couch and scroll through the filtered options by size, shape, and material. It was no loss if I didn’t see anything that interested me.

For the most part, any clothes I have purchased fit well enough. These jeans, which I decided to upcycle, were one of the exceptions. The waist fit was a bit loose, and the legs were too tight. That conflict caused the pants to slip anytime I sat down. 

Rather than suffer the annoyance, I decided to turn them into a new pair of shorts for summer. My favorite part of any project is destruction. So, to begin, I ripped out the side seams (inner and outer) of the legs up to the thigh area. Then, I chopped off the excess bit of pant leg, setting the remnants aside to use later.

Ripping the side seams out of a pair of jeans with a seam ripper.

Cutting off the bottom of the jean legs with sissors to shorten the length for shorts.

I wanted to insert panels into the legs for a wide-leg fit. I cut some spare paper, folded it where the side seam would have been, and traced out the shape of the existing leg. I used this pattern to cut up some of an old sheet, pinned it in place, and saw if I liked the fit. I didn’t want to cut up the fabric I intended to use until I knew my random process would work. It was my great-grandmother’s fabric.

A folded piece of scrap paper inserted along the ripped out side seam so I could make a pattern.

The scrap paper with traced pattern piece for the side seam inserts. Pinned to an old sheet.

The cut pattern piece of old sheet pinned into the jean shorts for a test fit.

All of this seemed to work fine, so I cut out the pattern on grandma’s fabric, pinned it in place, sewed it down, turned the edges, stitched them up, and voila! Shorts! At least mostly. I used the spare jean material from the legs to make a bias tape of sorts, pinned and sewed it around the raw edges of the legs, and everything looked finished. 

Scrap paper pattern piece and cut out grandma's fabric for side seam insert.

New side seam insert sewn into the jean shorts and the edges turned under and sewed down.

Bias tape made from scrap jean material, pinned and sewn over the raw edges around the leg bottoms.

I did take one further step, though. I cut some squares of material to reinforce the tops of the inserts. Goodness knows I can see myself sitting down somewhere and popping one of those seams.

Side seam panel inserts with Great-Grandma's fabric, a vintage cotton with white flowers on yellow.

The finished upcycled jean shorts with panels inserted into the side seams and jean bias edges.

It has taken me ten days to finish them, but I’m thrilled with how they’ve turned out. The only thing I’ve left to do is enlarge the disgustingly small “women’s pockets”. Today, I took them for a spin and received very nice compliments!

It is such a boost to accomplish something, even imperfectly. One day, I would love a laundry pile I don’t have to sort through to find my “favorites” or “most comfortable” clothes. Grabbing any old thing because I love them all would feel wonderful! These shorts bring me one step closer to that reality.

Please stop by the project page to see all the photos I took during this project, including a bonus I didn't expect to find!