turn shirts into shorts August 29, 2014 – Posted in: Repurpose, Sewing

Every year my girls go through piles of bike shorts. They live in dresses and since we teach modesty, so there’s always a pair of shorts under every dress. With 3 girls, that’s a lot of bike shorts! They get pretty expensive, even with sales, so I decided to clean out my closet and turn old shirts of mine that were too short/stained/little and make them into a pile of new bike shorts!

The girls LOVE them! They’re softer than the store bought version.

And each pair takes me less than 15 minutes to make, start to finish.

Take a pair of bike shorts your daughter currently wears and trace to to make a pattern. You’ll need to add about 1″ to the top to allow for the elastic waistband, but we’re utilizing the finished hem of the shirt so you don’t need to add to the bottom.

Place your pattern piece even with the bottom hem of the shirt. **Hint: if you lay your shirt down inside out, your already have right sides together and can start sewing without flipping them.

Sew the front and back rises. You can make these shorts without a serger, just use a long stretch stitch, or a shallow zigzag.

Then sew the inseam.

Grab you elastic and overlap the ends by 1/2″ and stitch. This pair fits 2-4 so I used 19″ of elastic.

Turn your shorts right side out, and with your front and back seams matched, mark the sides of your shorts with pins.

Do the same with your elastic.

Place the elastic inside the shorts and match the pins. Pin the elastic to the shorts, keeping the top edge of the elastic even with the top edge of the shorts.

Sew around the top edge of the shorts. If you don’t have a serger, zigzag along the top.

Flip the elastic down inside the shorts, making sure to keep the edge flush inside, stretching a little as needed to keep it even, and stitch down near the bottom of the elastic.

And you’ve got a new pair of bike shorts!

Make sure to keep the rest of your shirt to reuse! You can turn the sleeves into leggings or a diaper cover, reuse the neck binding, and the rest of the shirt body can be trim pieces on knit tees or appliques.

Visit these other blogs today to see more awesome refashion projects!

1. Vintage pillowcase upcycle by Sew Country Chick
2. Large tee to adorable dress by Peek-a-boo Pattern Shop
3. Rit Dye upcycle by While Camden Sleeps
4. 15 minute tank upcycle by Raegun Ramblings
5. Men’s shirt refashion by Made with Moxie
6. Women’s tank & tee to girl’s tunic & leggings refashion by Andrea’s Notebook
7. 15 minute tee into bike shorts by Sew Like My Mom
8. Fringe cardigan upcycle by Rebel and Malice
9. Mu-muu refashion by Lil’ Bit & Nan by Bethany