Jeans Transformed

Some of you know that my mom is a champion garage saler. If you want something, you can put in an order with her and she will find it. Last summer, I mentioned I wanted an ice cream maker, and we found one later that week - a Cuisinart for $10! My blender broke and she found me a hardly used Kitchen Aid for $5. And clothes! She finds the cutest, most fun clothes for the girls.

While I was going through a tote of size 4s that Nora outgrew long ago, I found a pair of jeans my mom had gotten her at a garage sale. They had sunflowers embroidered all over them, and a cute yellow snap. Unfortunately, the knees were worn out. One had a big hole and the other was one fall away from disaster. Clearly Nora had loved these jeans, but they weren't going to work out for Dana. So I decided to turn them into shorts. I grabbed my scissors, pins and some fabric leftover from my owl pajamas and went to work.

They came out a bit long, like Bermudas, but I figure that the weather is rarely HOT here, so Bermudas are perfect.

To make them, I cut two pieces of fabric that were twice as long as the diameter of the leg opening. Does that make sense? I hemmed one edge and basted the other. Then I pulled the basting to gather the top edge and pinned it to the shorts. After stitching the ruffle in place, I steamed it down and top stitched. It took like an hour to make these shorts and two purses.

Yes, purses. See, when I cut off the legs above the knees, I realized that there was a long section that was just fine. So I cut the knees off again and used the cuff of the pants to make two purses, one for each girl. Because I didn't tell you yet that Nora also has these jeans in a 6, though the knees are still intact.

To make the purses, I cut 2" wide strips of the yellow fabric, then pressed them twice to make bias tape. I sewed this around the top raw edge of each purse, sewed wide ribbon handles on, and sewed the bottoms together. Voila! Two purses and a pair of shorts in one hour. Awesome morning!