The skinny kick style is weird, a skinny jean with a sudden flare at the bottom.

These were especially weird on me because with the flare-- the long size is still too short.

So I basically took out the flare to have regular skinny jeans for only $9.00.

The steps are pretty much the same as these, except I had to take out both sides due to minimizing a flare.

I also had to take darts out of the waistband (under the belt-loops) on the back so I don't get the gap in the back.  

These still may need a little tweaking, seeing them in pictures makes me think they could still come in a little at the ankle.

Anyway, ome times it's nice to sew so you can salvage clearance finds!

But to start with the color, I wanted to mute the bright banana yellow to a mustard, so I dyed it with tea.

I have done this before with my fabric yardage in the bathtub.

But this time I was able to fit the sweater in a big pot on my stove as it simmered in probably 10-15 tea bags   with 5-8 cups of water.

Because you'll most likely be wearing the cardigan over another top, and you lose 1/2-1" in the center, I would recommend buying a size up if planning on cutting up a sweater to make yourself a cardigan.

You could always vary the closure too, using a zipper, toggles, snaps, etc. 

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. 

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.