Upcycled T Shirt Shorts: how to reuse the original hem

Here’s the second part of the series on shorts and pants made with the MADE pattern. (Did you read the first part about my shorts made from scraps of a duvet cover?) I’m really happy with how these shorts came out because they’re really soft and comfortable for playing in, plus I love the color.

But probably what I love most about these is that I didn’t have to hem them because I reused the original hems of this t shirt I bought used for €1.

First you need to figure out how much fabric gets folded under to make your pattern’s hems. In this case, you had to first fold under 1/2 inch then another 1 inch, for a total of 1.5 inches.

Measure that distance from the bottom of the pattern and draw a line with a pencil. I found it easier to fold the paper along that line.

Lay the t-shirt out on a flat surface, line up the fold of the pattern with the t-shirt’s hem. (You can see that I print out my PDF patterns on recycled paper!)

My t shirt had a large image on the front, so in order to get my pieces to fit in I had to put the pieces upside down.

After cutting out the main pieces, I went onto the pockets. I managed to cut the two parts of the first pocket from the two layers of t-shirt together in one corner.

But I had to cut the second pocket’s pieces from two different parts of the t-shirt because of the writing on it. There was no place to cut them from the two layers together, so for the second piece I had to turn the pattern over, otherwise I would’ve ended up the wrong side of the fabric showing on one side of the pocket.

Continue following the sewing instructions. Here are the pockets attached.

When you get to the part of sewing the inner legs and outer sides, you need to be careful to line up the already-sewn hems.

And there you have some perfect hems made without any folding, measuring or ironing!

It’s not so important if the waist side isn’t perfectly lined up because you’ll just be folding that inwards anyway to make the elastic casing.

The rest of the process is all the same. So saving yourself a bit of work, you’ll end up with perfect shorts!

Those pockets are super useful for all those tiny things that kids just love carrying around with them.

And the shorts are perfect for playing and taking walks! Here Mr. Nicky is taking a break on the Giara di Gesturi plateau in Sardinia. Aren’t they perfect with those shoes?! So take that t shirt that nobody’s used for years and make something from it that will get used all the time!