Cut Off Jeans

 Lucky Jeans - 1st Generation 

Due to my conservative upbringing, I've never had cutoffs.  Or, more correctly, never made my own cutoffs.  A couple of weeks ago, I decided I wanted a pair.  And today, I realized my window of opportunity is closing in rather unexpectedly.  You see, cutoffs are usually shorts (as opposed to capris) and shorts are worn in warm weather.  But, out of the blue, it's starting to get a bit chilly in Austin.  Quite a surprise to me.  The 100+ degree days had 'frozen' a picture in my mind of it simply always being hot in Austin.

The subject was a first generation pair of my Lucky Jeans. Originally purchased back in the wee years of undergrad, they were the response to my American Eagle jeans literally disintegrating after 5 years of intimate love.  Those AE jeans were stretch, and boy did I test that characteristic.  They'll always hold a soft spot in my heart.  But, these Lucky jeans had a good life, too.  Saw the best of my undergrad years and were officially retired last year when I upgraded to a dark shade of Luckys... more grown up and sophisticated.  You know, you gotta grow up some time.

Cutting any sort of material short of wrapping paper or construction paper is going out of my comfort zone.  For reassurance, I came up with a plan of action for taking my jeans under the knife.  Cutting material seems really really final in my mind, and I didn't want to screw up my cut and render the jeans unwearable.  Not that I was wearing them as long jeans anyways, but still - I'd hate to see a perfectly good pair of jeans permanently damaged.  To put my uneasiness at ease, I tried a practice cut way down south of the danger zone.  My fear that cutting the thick material would be difficult was quickly diminished.  It was easy.  

Where to make the final cut was the next task.  I didn't want to go too short.  Remember, I'm grown up now and tend to side on dressing more conservatively.  Having ample coverage on my legs while biking was another practical reason for leaving the shorts fairly long.  Standing in front of the mirror, I eyeball a good length and use my straightedge (engineers scale) to mark with the red pen a line across one leg.  I'm surprised when I lay the pants down on the floor and the red pen line is arched across the left leg.  Hmm.  I cut along anxiously and try 'em on - one leg long, one leg short.  Satisfied with the length, I repeat with the same method: bathroom, mirror, straightedge, red pen, knife.  I mean, scissors. 

Final Product!

The cut is almost too clean.  It isn't exactly the look I was thinking I'd get, but then realize I'm working with stretch jeans that were already pretty thin to begin with.  Improvising, I try rolling up the bottoms.  I like the way this looks.  A more permanent solution will be to sew the two sides... but that'll have to wait for another day.   For the time being, I'll admire my first pair of homemade anything (clothing wise) (!! :D).  And also ponder... what to do with the leftover jean legs?? :P