With the rise of the all-over-print and the pyjamas-as-outerwear trends, scarf prints have been showing up on fashionistas everywhere. Not just reserved for grandma’s neck and the lining of a luxury purse anymore, designer scarf prints are showing up on all types of clothes!
With designer-inspired satin scarves being readily available all over the place (from your fast fashion retailers to vintage shops), the materials for this DIY should be easy to gather up. I’m going to show you today how to transform any giant silk scarf into a cute pair of scarf shorts.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
- an oversized “designer inspired” satin scarf
- a pair of old shorts
- pattern paper
- scissors
- pins
- sewing machine
- elastic
TUTORIAL:
[ TRACE SHORTS ] – Take an old pair of woven shorts with an elastic waistband to make your pattern with. Ideally they will be the exact shape and fit you want your new shorts to be! All I had were some mini boxer shorts that I wear to sleep. Fold your shorts in half and then place them on your pattern paper. Trace the outline of the shorts, making sure to stretch out the waistband when tracing. I wanted to make my new shorts high-waisted so I altered the pattern a bit (by making the inseam rise a few inches higher).
[ CUT PATTERN ] – Cut out the paper pattern, making sure to add a half inch seam allowance around the entire piece & a one inche seam allowance at the top to allow for sewing in a waistband.
[ FOLD & CUT ] – Fold your scarf in to quarters and place the pattern on top. Pin the pattern piece down and cut all 4 pieces together. If you’re finnicky about pattern matching, you can cut each layer separately.
[ PIN PIECES ] – Carefully pin the pieces face to face & along the curved line. I illustrated some pink lines on the photo to indicate where you need to be pinning. This is when you need to be careful with matching the patterns of both sides, because these seams will be your center front and center back seams.
[ SEW ] – Sew along these two curved seams. I serged the seams to prevent fraying but if you don’t have a serger, you can just sew along the seam and then zig-zag stitch over it after.
[ PIN & SEW AGAIN ] – Now take both your front and back pieces of the shorts and lay them face to face. Again, I’ve drawn pink lines on the photo that indicate where you need to pin & sew.
[ PREP ELASTIC ] – Measure your waist & subtract an inch; this is the length that you should cut your elastic. Take the elastic and create a loop by sewing the ends together.
[ ATTACH WAISTBAND ] – Take your loop of elastic and pin it inside the top hem of the shorts. It is going to be MUCH smaller than the length of the fabric at the top, so pin it at 4 equal increments along the top. Then attach the elastic to the top using a serger or a zigzag stitch. You will need to stretch out the elastic while sewing it to the fabric.
After attaching the elastic to the inside top hem, then fold over the hem (with the elastic sandwiched inside) and use a straight stitch to finish the elastic hem. Again, you’ll need to stretch the elastic out taut while sewing.
If necessary, hem the bottom of the shorts with a rolled hem technique. Then finish by ironing & you’re all done!
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Thanks for reading! Are you gonna try this DIY? Tweet us a photo @everybodyisugly
by Sylvia of lipglossandblack
Photos by Syl and Sam
D&G SS2012 RTW photo via Style.com
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