Add some class to that....

This next project I absolutely loved. Ever since I was a kid I've had a problem with long legs and a small waste. Now how could this be a problem you might say? It's a hell of a thing to complain about. With jeans it's not so bad because I can buy jeans in long but shorts are ridiculous. As a kid they weren't so bad but now fashion companies are responding to the skankiness of my generation (I apologize on our behalf) and shorts are getting shorter and shorter. When you have a small waste and long legs the shorts look even shorter. Every year it gets worse. I hate it. Shorts that are supposed to be mid thigh are my shorts these days. Anyways, until recently I've been either selling or collecting my jean shorts as my legs get longer and my shorts look shorter. Now, I'll be honest, at some point to high school I did succumb to the flaw of my generation and my shorts were pretty short, but they always covered. I grew out of it and ended up throwing away or selling a bunch of shorts. Since I got rib of so many I barely have any now and summers are hot. Rather than throw away the few pairs of shorts I have left, I found a picture on pinterest that will make shorts that are only a little too short a little longer.

When I found this link online it was only a link to a picture of shorts. I've put off wearing these shorts for a long time because of how short they are. The lace has added about an inch to them. I wish I could unroll them but they are sewn at the hems and I don't know enough about sewing to undo that.

As I've said before I don't have a sewing machine which makes this difficult. I do have no sew stitch from a toga project I did a few months back. I bought this liquid stitch at Hobby Lobby. So what I did is I turned my shorts inside out. The lace I used was identical all around (same pattern, as most laces are) so I found a spot on it that would be where the edge of my pants reaches on the lace so that the lace would be even all around. I applied a line of no sew gel and spread it out with my finger. After placing the lace on the gel I used some pins to keep the lace in place until it dried. I did this all around to both legs of the shorts. Then I took my mini sewing kit. I hand stitched at the places that probably wouldn't stay on just the no sew gel like the inner and outer thighs. Then I put a few security stitches in random places just in case they started to fall apart the first time I wore them. This way they wouldn't look ridiculous if that happened and they would still look together until I could get home. They didn't fall apart. The no sew stitch gel is machine washable. You'll need to let the gel dry completely. I let mine sit out 24 hours before I wore them even though it doesn't take that long to dry completely.

I only did this because I didn't have a sewing machine. If you have a machine I highly recommend doing it that way so that there isn't a chance that the lace will fall apart. You will also want to sew (by machine or hand) the two ends of the lace together once they wrap around. I had the lace begin and end on the inner leg so that the stitches and ends couldn't be seen. The lace I chose wasn't very wide (maybe 1.5 inches). I'd base the lace width on how much you want to add to your shorts. I also chose off-white lace because I think it will match more and give my outfits a country feel.