DIY with Ruby -- cutoffs

All summer I've been wanting some of those perfectly distressed, comfortable jean cut-offs I've seen in stores since "festival wear" started popping up everywhere in the spring. The best ones that look just the right amount of distressed are always ridiculously expensive for jeans with holes in them -- I'm talking $200 for something I knew I could make myself. I started looking up some different DIYs for cut-offs (How hard could it be, really, to just cut off a pair of old jeans?) but the problem was that I guess all the people doing these DIYs online have really skinny thighs, so that when they cut off their ordinary, fitted-through-hip-and-thigh jeans, they somehow didn't look like they were wearing denim biker shorts. My old jeans fit me fine as jeans, but I knew that they would look ridiculous as shorts, which, generally, fit looser through the thigh. 

That's when I came up with a plan -- 

a plan that would require a sewing machine -- 

a plan that would require --

my mother.

from left: my sister, my mom, and me. My mom, Ruby, is the reason I attempt to do any do-it-yourself projects, having grown up seeing her design and create many, many amazing things from paintings to homemade yogurt to renaissance costumes to mosaic table tops -- and the list goes on.

Step 1: Gather supplies. You'll need: old jeans, a pair of shorts that fit you well (for measuring), scissors, measuring tape, pins, and some method of sewing. 

Step 2: Using your shorts as a guide, mark, measure, and cut your jeans a little longer than you want them to end up. We did these a lot longer, because I wasn't sure how they'd look, and I wanted lots of room to fray and distress them.

Step 3: Take the leftover cut-off pants legs, and, using your shorts as a guide, measure how much extra fabric you'll need to make your legs wide enough. Really, you could use any extra fabric for this. I wanted to use the back side of this denim so that I would have a patchy, hippie look, with two shades of blue.

Step 4: Cut your extra fabric to size, leaving about 1/4 inch of fabric for a seam allowance. Cut your jeans right up the side seam to just below the pocket (as shown). Ruby's tip: Cut out the heavy seams on the sides of the jeans too so that you don't have too much fabric to sew through in the next step.

Step 5: Sew your fabric pieces into your jeans. You could do this by hand if you wanted to, or if you're lazy and want to spend time with a friend or family member with a sewing machine, you could have them do it. (It's much, much faster if I just let my mom do these things, plus I got some good sewing tips while I was watching.)

Step 6: After you try the finished product on, you may want to cut the shorts to a shorter length. Then it's time to distress the denim. (The most fun part, I think.) The key with distressing denim is to put cuts and bare spots in the places where the jeans naturally get wear and tear. Also, you don't want holes or fraying to be too symmetrical. To achieve some good holes and distressing, I used scissors, sandpaper and -- my favorite -- a microplane. Nothing worked better than the microplane, which is also handy for zesting your citrus fruit. The final pieces of fraying didn't show up until I washed and dried these. Then they were ready for hot summer days.

I'm really happy with the final result, and I had lots of fun hanging out with my mom and learning her ways. My mom and I have a long history of these sort of fashion-DIY collaborations, starting with the 1995 Delia's catalog, including many Halloweens and school plays, and culminating in my wedding and bridesmaid's dresses. She's pretty amazing, and I think "DIY with Ruby" needs to be a regular feature on this blog because she's really good at these things, and I can see a lot of little projects for fixing up my fall wardrobe.