Monday, February 1, 2010

Adventures with the sewing machine

Turning a pair of old jeans into cute Capri's

My Daughter Mackenzie doesn't seem to be growing much in the waist these days but she is defiantly getting taller, so all of her pants fit but are a little short.With money being tight due to this economy, I've decided to start turning her old jeans into some really cute Capri's and I would like to share how I do it with you. I hope you enjoy this post and feel free to email us with any questions or comments you may have.

Items that You will need:

-old jeans (that still fit around the waist/hips)
-scissors that will cut denim
-sewing machine with denim/heavy needle
-thread
-material for ruffles
-heat n bond
-iron

Step One:
Pick out the pair of pants that you would like to use to make capri's out of:


Step Two:
Measure how short you would like the capri's to be. Once you have measured and marked both pant leg you will then cut them off.

Step Three:
Now that you have the capri's the lenght that you want them. Pick out the material that you would like to use for the ruffles. If you don't have a ruffler for your sewing machine, you can take a needle and thread and lightly weave it in and out of the material. Once you get to the end of the fabric lightly pull on the thread which will make the material gather to form a ruffle.
(I forgot to take a picture of my ruffles before I sewed them on sorry about that)


Step Four:
Now that you have your ruffles made you will need to sew them on. Take one pant leg and fold the bottom under about 1/2 inch and then you will take one of your ruffles and pin it all the way around. Repeat this step on the other pant leg and then sew them on.



Once I sewed my ruffles on I decided that I wanted to jazz them up a little more.I decided to cut some hearts (free handed) out of the fabric that I had left over. Once I cut my hearts out I then ironed them on to some Heat N Bond (love that stuff) and then simply ironed them on to the pants. Now that you have the hearts where you want them simply sew them on to the pants.







Here is the final product

I even added a heart to the butt of the pants. There is so much you can do with them so have fun doing it.


I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Have a safe and Happy weekend !!!!


Love ,
The Traveling Junkies

We have linked this tutorial to :

http://
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2 comments:

Lacey said...

Love them, very cute! Definitly something to keep in mind when my kiddies get older! I will have to tell my friend bc her child keeps growing and growing except her wasite. Or maybe a good b-day gift for her, it is coming up soon for spring time! Thanks so much!

Misty @Creative Itch said...

That's such a fun idea! Thanks for linking @Creative Itch's "Sew Cute Tuesday"!