A.k.a Projects To Do While Trapped in Quarantine
Welcome back to Corona virus 2020, today’s update is about trying to find happiness in sitting at home with your parents when you were supposed to be living your best life as a college senior. One way I have been trying to make sense of the world right now is taking the time to create. Even if you wouldn’t consider yourself a “creative person” consider trying something easy to change it up. It can be very therapeutic and that is exactly what people need in a crisis. This week I decided to upcycle two old pairs of jeans as my creative outlet.
Painted Jeans
This is super easy to do and a ton of fun! I grabbed a pair of jeans that was getting a little old and decided to give it a quick update with the paint I have left over from the white boots I painted (you can see those in my How to Build an Outfit post). If you are using acrylic paints (which I did) you should add fabric medium. If you don’t have any it’s not essential. For my inspiration, I googled 80’s geometric pattern and tried to just get a feel for the design I wanted. Without any further ado, here is the final product:
Cut Shorts
One of the easiest ways to upcycle jeans, or any other clothes, is to give it a quick crop. All you need for this is a pair of jeans, a pen, a ruler or measuring tape, and scissors. It is good to try on some other shorts before cutting mew ones to see what length you want. I like to put the jeans on inside out a mark where I want the shorts to end, but if you want to be professional you can measure the inseam and mark there. Once you have a mark use your ruler or tape to extend the line you made straight across the jeans. If you are making very short shorts, consider drawing the line on an angle for a slightly longer inseam. After you have extended the line measure the length of the total length and inseam, making corresponding marks on the other leg.
Pant Leg Lunchbox
This one involves some minimal sewing skills but you have two legs and a pair of scissors so feel free to give it a try! The first thing I did was sew a line straight across the line that I cut. I always use a back-stitch because it is strong and one of the three stitches I know. After I finished the first line, I marked about an inch and a half down the line on each side and folded the corners on those lines. This gave me a triangle with the stitched line up the center. I sewed along those new lines to create a square base. Next, I cut the excess and cut some of the fabric down because the leg was too long as a plain bag. I made a new bottom hem by folding the new top down and sewing a line with gold thread.
Not only can you celebrate your genius creativity, you are recycling and now have some unique pieces to show off. There are plenty of other options to try when you want to upcycle jeans all over the internet, I have a Pinterest board dedicated to upcycling clothes that you can check out for more inspiration. If you don’t have any jeans you are willing to sacrifice, you can always buy some at a thrift store. I have one more pair that I am thinking about embroidering, I’ll post them on my Instagram when they are done. Hope you have fun creating new things!
xoxo,
Emelie
