Modest Denim Cut-Off Shorts

Madison needed some shorts for summer,which I thought was nearby, but it turns out I was WAY off ...we've woken up to 3" of snow the past two days!  :)  But, anyway, I went to the outlets in Park City with my mom while she was here visiting and then looked around online...and although there were TONS of cute things -- the shorts were really, really, really short AND $32.00 a pair!  So, I came home, grabbed three pairs of her pants from the last year that happened to be too short...but still fit her otherwise and got to work. 

First, I looked online and found some really cute shorts at Justice (one of her fav stores...thanks to our Kaitie!).  Those are the ones I've shown below, but you can mimic pretty much anything these days, especially convenient is the whole "grungy" pants thing...it works out really well when you're cutting up pants from a year ago.  :)

I laid out the pants and just cut them where I wanted them to fall on Maddie (just above her knee)...

I stitched around the bottom of the shorts to keep the edges from fraying too much...

Then...I grabbed my fabric scraps and pulled out a couple of pieces I thought were cute and "Maddie-ish" ... I cut them up and then ironed the pieces to some interfacing (pellon)...you can use a used dryer sheet for this too if you don't have any interfacing on hand...just something to help stabilize the fabric pieces, it keeps the piece of fabric from fraying all apart and the piece falling off in the wash.  (you wouldn't iron the dryer sheet-just place it between the shorts and the fabric patch as you sew on the patch).

I cut the pieces of fabric and then laid them on the shorts and stitched around each of the patches.

*Don't sew too close to the edges of the patches of fabric, they'll come off as the edges will fray when they're washed and dried even with the interfacing.  I sew about 1/4" inside the edge of the patch.

I tossed the shorts into the wash to fray the edges of the shorts and the edges and the patches...

and ... WahLah!  A cute little pair of trendy-but modest shorts for my 10-year-old little girl!  :)

Now, we just need some sunshine!  :)