Turning denim shorts or jeans into a mini skirt

Do you have denim in your closet with rips or stains? Turn it into a mini skirt!

This is a perfect project to do with thrifted jeans that don't fit quite right in all the ways you want them to. It's super easy and should take you an hour or less.

First, start off with jeans or longer shorts. I started with these Hudson bermuda shorts. I mean, honestly, are bermuda shorts flattering on anyone?

They're great as far as bermuda shorts go, but I would never wear them.

First step is to open the inner leg seam.

Then, you want to open up a little farther up the front and back seam until it will lay flat.

Next, cut to length and take a piece of fabric that you cut off from the length and use it to fill in the triangle that's open in the front. Depending on your style/length there might also be a little you need to patch in the back. But on this project for me, there wasn't.

Pin everything so it's flat:

These photos also help you see how high up you need to open your front and back seam. For the scrap I used to fill in the front triangle, I just cut it to a rough triangle shape a bit larger than I needed and pinned it in place, keeping the original seam allowance folded under.

Then, all you have to do is sew along your pins!

Because you still have the original stitching showing, you don't have to do anything fancy here for your seam to look like it's supposed to. If you want, you can sew it twice to make it match the original stitch.

Once you're all sewn up, just flip it inside out and trim off any excess material and threads.

Finally, throw it in the wash to get the rough edge, or hem the bottom for a cleaner look!