DIY: CONTRAST SHORTS

Add a little surprise—a pop of color—when you fold your shorts up. Here’s how you do this. Let’s keep those hands busy!

What you need:

1.       Pair of shorts

2.       Printed fabric (2 pieces of 4 ½” by 25” printed fabrics)

3.       Fabric glue or thread & needle

4.       Ruler

5.       Scissors

The sewing materials are only optional just incase the fabric glue doesn’t work on the printed fabric that you’re using. I decided to go with stitching because I used satin as my contrast fabric. You can ask for your mom or your house help to assist you with the sewing part if you don’t know how to. 

GREEN highlights show where the glue/stitches are placed.

Procedure:

1. Prepare the pair of shorts to be used. Mine is a recycled old jeans that I decided to crop.

2. Turn the shorts inside-out and using the ruler, measure the length of hem to be folded. The folds of my shorts measure 3 inches. That’s one and a half (1 ½) inch per fold. A 3-inch fold should be partnered with a 4 and a half (4 ½) inches of printed fabric. My printed fabric measures 4 ½ inches by 25 inches.

*The choice of procedure to use comes with the choice of printed fabric you’re using. Fabric glue don’t work in all types of fabric.

3. Prepare the fabric glue or the sewing kit, whichever you are using. Place the tip of the printed fabric on the inseam of your shorts as shown on image 3 and start gluing / sewing. You can just simply trace the original stitches of your shorts.

4. When you’re done with the inseam, bring your fabric across to the outseam and start tracing the short’s original stitches again.

5. After you’re done with the outseam, you can bring the fabric around the back of the short’s  to meet the inseam that you stitched earlier. Trim the excess fabric and again, trace the original stitches, capping it off.

*Image 5 shows six small points of stitches on the upper and lower tips on the fabric. I did that so the fabric won’t get loose when the shorts are folded.  Make small stitches on the backside too.

6. After doing the same procedure on the other leg, your shorts is finished. Image 6 shows how it looks like after the gluing/stitching from the inside. Turn it out again, bring the two folds up and there you’re done! your original pair of contrast shorts! 

Finished contrast shorts! 

*(You can also iron each fold so it is well defined and in place.)

I suggest you use baroque, Aztec or plaid printed fabrics to highlight the contrast. I found my fabric among a bunch of printed scarves in my mom’s closet, so this DIY is not really costly.

You don’t need a lot of money to follow trends; just test your wit, imagination and resourcefulness. Why buy when you can DIY?

See the online layout here.

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