Refashion: Cardigan and Shorts

I don't do that much clothing refashioning.  I don't know why, it's usually easy and cost effective.

Probably  a big reason is the fact I hate shopping for clothes, and I never look in the clothes at the thrift store.

I'm don't mind wearing used clothing, but I don't buy thrifted clothing because I'm just too cheap.  It kills me how expensive used second-hand clothing can be.  In my mind used clothing that has been worn, should be $2.00 tops.  Used t-shirts should be less than a dollar.  I could go on about thrift stores with rip-off prices, but I will move on to the project at hand.

I'm starting off with the pants.  I was killing time in an Old Navy and they had a huge rack of clearance pants for $6.00 a pair.  I found these grey pants that were way too short.  Pants are usually too short.  But I thought they were worth $6.00 to cut off into shorts because usually shorts are also too short for where they should be.  So basically I just cut off the legs and hemmed them for a pair of bermuda shorts. 

 Typical bermuda inseams are 12", but I measured mine to be 15" long and drew a chalk line where I wanted the pants to end.  Then I added a 2" hem strip and sliced the rest off.  

To hem the legs, I ironed each pant leg on the fold/ chalk line then top stitched the hem.

Easy to get a $6 pair of shorts.

The next item was making a cardigan out of a lime green sweater I've had for a while.

I rarely wore the sweater because it also seemed too short.

So I cut down the center of the sweater front.  Next I sewed twill tape on the right sides of the sweater, right along the raw sweater edge. Then I folded the twill tape under and top stitched it in place.  This created a finished edge, and the twill tape minimized distorting and stretching the sweater, and provided thick backing for the buttons and button holes.

Then I just sewed a row of buttons on one side, the button holes on the other.  I rarely button cardigans, so to be honest, I only cut a few button holes in the middle of the placket.  So the majority are just decorative buttons really.

So quick easy ways you probably already knew to get something old out of the closet and make a cheap pair of shorts. 

 My hair has grown out to fit in pig tails now.  I can't wait until it's long enough to be an actual pony tail again.