DIY distressed denim shorts

This was an easy peasy naptime project - perfect for the upcoming summer weekend!

I had a pair of jeans that I held on to after my last closet purge (ok, the last 3 purges), but I hadn't worn them.Which means they had to go...ORRRR become useful. I chose the latter. I figured I could chop them into shorts and see what happened - if I hated them no harm done, right? So I chopped them, distressed them and here they are:

I used a few online sources to guide me - for the basic cutting I used the guidelines here and for the distressing I used this video (which is probably done by a 16 year old girl...who better to teach me how to be cool? ha. At least she understands the value of DIY!).

I started by measuring 18" from the waist band and using chalk to mark where I wanted to cut the jeans (no pics, sorry). Then I chopped them!

Here's how they looked then:

The general consensus on Instagram was that I definitely needed to distress them. First I practiced on the legs that I cut off, then I went to work on the shorts. It's a bit time consuming but made for a little project during one of O's naps.

You make two cuts to where you want the distressed section:

Then you use tweezers to pull out the vertical blue threads (this is the time consuming part...):

 

You end up with a section that looks like this:

 

I did a few areas of this style in different widths and heights. Then I scuffed up the jeans with some sandpaper, put in some tiny holes and tweezed the edges to soften them and they were done!

 

Weekend Recap

Ahhh summer weekends. I think this weekend (in Toronto) was one of the best of the year, if not THE best so far (hopefully it's like this every weekend from here on in). It was beautiful, sunny, hot, clear skies...in other words: perfect. We hosted a BBQ for 12 on Saturday night - beautiful night, and great friends to catch up with. We served grilled chicken, Israeli cous cous greek salad, roasted eggplant dish (Imam Biyaldi), hummus and veggies, cupcakes and watermelon. Yumm. I don't know how some of you manage to capture the table all set, with the food laid out...I took some quick shots with my phone before anyone arrived, but after that it was all about eating and visiting.

 How was your summer weekend?

Off the clock

In less than 24 hours we will be on vacation...can't wait for some time away to relax, refresh, and have fun!

There will be some of this:

{via}

Some snorkle...

{via}

And some of this...

{via}

Replace this with pastier white skin, and a pregnant belly and you'll have me!

See you once I'm back!