14 Jeans to stylish cropped pants for Summer!

I was going through my sons wardrobe trying to weed out the winter/too small clothes.  I had all these jeans in a pile of too small because they are too short for his lanky legs.  They are all still in PERFECT condition and it really stunk to have to get rid of them.  I started thinking how I could use them for summer and the first thing to come to mind was cut-offs. Cut-offs are fine and dandy, but I didn't only want him to have a bunch of cut-off shorts, so here is my solution. A cuffed cropped pant!  This works for boys AND girls (big ones too!).

 Here is what I did: 

1. Fold and iron the pant to the length desired.

2.  Measure how much fabric (or twill ribbon, etc) you are going to need to create the "strap" that holds the cuff. (You want to be able to sew the inside end beneath the cuff so the stitches don't show on the outside and the outside end should be sewn  above the cuff).  Mine were 2.25"w x 7"l. (Sorry, no picture).

3.  Cut the fabric, iron in half, wrong sides together. Sew one end and done the side.  Now turn and iron flat. (If you use ribbon you can skip this step!).

4.  You want to turn the pant leg inside out and sew the raw edge of the strap to the outer seam of the pant (I cut the raw edge with pinking shears).

5.  Turn pant leg right side out and iron again to ensure the shape (no picture).

 6. Sew the other end of the strap just above the cuff.  I hand sewed it on and then sewed on the button.

7.  Sew the tops of the cuffs down on either side of the leg so it doesn't start to flop down(OK, I was a bad tutorial picture taker since I missed a few steps!). That's it, you're done!  Now put them on your little one (or yourself!) and snap some pictures... my little man loves the camera, but only if HE is behind it, so getting him to pose for pictures is a daunting task.

Happy sewing!