Thrift Shop Thursday, DIY high waist jean shorts

Since Thursdays are typically my thrift shopping days, I plan on showcasing some of my finds. I can't promise the post will be up on Thursday, most likely Friday, but I will definitely get something up asap. It's hard to spend all day treasure hunting then find time to write about it. (I usually shop til I drop!)

When I shop I try to manifest what I am looking for. Yesterday I was in the market for a pair of those reallly ugly 1990's high waist jeans. (in the ugliest color possible!) My intentions for them were to make a cute pair of distressed shorts, like the kind I have been noticing on high priced racks across the mall! (I can't pay $50 for shorts!) My first store was a score! I found 2 pairs! One actually fit me, the other I will sell on my etsy store ( WinterGreenVintage) 

Here it goes...

I forgot to take a picture before the cut!

I had cut my jeans to the length that I wanted. I have really long legs, so I tried not to make them too short.

They already look much better!

Now that I had them cut to the length I wanted, I had to start distressing them. What I did to fray the edges a little bit was take a coarse nail file, hung the cut ends over a box, and just ran the nail file across in different directions to get the fray started.

The nail file work on the edges. 

Next I love adding rips and tears. Might as well go all the way if you are already wearing cut offs!

Adding the tears

So to add the tears, you have to make 2 cuts in the jeans as big as you want the tear to be. When you have the shorts in front of you, the cuts will be a top and bottom cut (horizontal with the shorts). Then all you have to do is start pulling out the colored threads with tweezers. Sometimes this part takes a good bit of time to get the first thread out, but once that happens, they all start coming out much easier.

Do these poor illustrations help??

My finished product! Cost = $2.99

I don't add tears to the back bc my underwear is never that cool! 

Inspired to save money? I would have shown a picture with these on, but I still have my winter legs, so I am doing your eyes a favor! You can do this! Just start your cuts on the long side so you don't make booty shorts off the bat (unless you were going for that). You can google "how to distress jeans" and they can show you youtube videos of how to make the tears I attempted to explain (probably confused you).

I'd love to see your thrifting finds! Feel free to share!!!