Extending Clothing Life – Making Pants & Sleeves Longer

I talked about how to make jammie pants into shorts and how to make long sleeve T’s into short sleeves.  However, sometimes clothing is too short and needs to have something added to it.

My daughter (like most girls I’m sure) has certain items of clothing that she loves to wear.  When they get too small, she hates to see them go and on occasion will try to convince me that they really aren’t too small.  Sometimes, I can fix them.  One of my favorite fixes is sewing ruffles on shorts, skirts, or pants that have gotten too short.

These shorts were just too short.  So, I found some material that coordinated and sewed a band on each leg.  Presto, decent length shorts again.Another favorite outfit is her fleece set made with kitty material.  I think I made it in 2010 so it’s getting short again!

It was a little long when I made it, but after a couple years, they were getting short.  So I had some of the material leftover, but anything that coordinates would work.  Cut pieces long enough to make the sleeves or legs the right length and then add an inch and a half to allow for seams and hems.

Because fleece doesn’t unravel and fray, I just zig zagged the edges rather than doing an actual hem.  If you wanted to do a hem, you can just turn the edges under and sew it with a straight stitch.