Sewing Bee

At the moment I'm currently preparing and packing for a weekend of partying, dancing and lack of sleep! ** It's V FESTIVAL **  Now the one item every girl will be taking with them or wearing from the word GO will be a pair of Levis high waisted shorts.  But what if every single vintage shop has sold out in your size (due to festival season) and you don't want to pay £40 in urban outfitters? What's a girl to do? EASY PEASY Ladies! You make them! This sounds pretty hard, but tbh you can't go wrong. There's no sewing involved... all you need to do, is get happy snappy with your denim!

Essentials:

I have dress making scissors, but for this, the rougher the edges the better. If you only have a pair of bog standard scissors... go for it anyway. Don't go out and buy a dress makers pair. Save your money for the drinks at the actual festival! 



The jeans you can see here are actually high waisted Levis from a vintage boutique, but you can use modern high waisted jeans or longer shorts. It doesn't really matter. But truth be told... Levis do look the best! These were only £15!!! Absolute bargain!!!


Chalk It Through

Use a bit of chalk to draw roughly a line around the jeans. This is where you're gonna cut after! I usually draw the line slightly lower down for the first cut, just to be extra careful. I use a tape measure to roughly check that each leg is the same length. It's a lot easier to do this on a mate that is roughly the same size as you and use her as a model, or you will have to get someone you trust to help you draw/ measure the lines.


When drawing the line at the back, you want to mark the jeans slightly lower than the line at the front. I know they won't match up, but you can sort this out later. This is so your bum cheeks won't be hanging out. I know a few of you probably want that look, but I don't particularly like it and I don't think the poor souls walking behind me would either. 

Now: "cut on the dotted line"! 


You can try the rough shorts back on to see if any extra length needs to be cut away and to even up the front and back, so that they look even. Use the chalk again to roughly mark which bits need cutting away. Make the cutting line slope upwards on the back panels, so that the slope helps to join the slightly shorter cut lines at the front. 

Whip them off and cut again!

And again try them back on. It sounds a lot of faffing but it's all worth it! If you still want a bit more of the length off, do the same process again. 

Now to "decorate"!

Fray the edges of the shorts by pulling hard with your fingers. If not enough is fraying, turn the shorts over to reveal the white strands you want to pull easier. Use a needle ir something pointy to push them out. This works a lot easier. 


Those were already there

To exaggerate the rusticity of the shorts, it looks better if you add rips. But not by cutting great big holes through the denim. 

You basically need to scratch off the blue threads of denim, leaving the white threads behind. This is not a job for impatient people. It takes time and tbh is a bit frustrating, but well and truly worth it.

Start by cutting carefully a tiny bit of the blue and I mean a minute bit! Then with your needle scrape really hard over the tiny section. This will loosen up all the blue threads. Cut away the fluffy blue and you will begin to see the white threads.

 Now it gets easier. To get rips running horizontally, you need to break more blue threads. Use the needle or a stitch unpicker to pull each tiny thread away. I told you it was time consuming!

If you want the rip to running vertically. This is much easier. These threads are already broke and all you have to is unravel them. A quick ways is to scratch it with the needle and keep cutting the fluffy blue threads away! 

The End Result