With Spring Break starting at the end of this week, I’ve convinced myself that summer is just around the corner. And with summer comes my very favorite clothing trend: cut off shorts.

I was scrolling through the Free People blog—if you’ve read my blog before, you know it’s probably my number one inspiration—and I came across this awesome post on how to update any pair of old cut off shorts!

If you have an old pair of shorts, scissors, and a sewing needle, this is a great project to throw together super quickly—and a great pair of shorts to wear out during your Spring Break vacations.

The Project: Free People’s Updated Cut Offs

The Inspiration: This great post from Free People!

The Materials: Old cut offs. Fabric. Sewing needle. Thread. Scissors. Pins.

The Steps: I followed the steps listed on Free People’s website pretty exactly. I love the DIYs they do because they are so simple to follow and always turn out so great!

As shown on the Free People website, the first thing you’ll want to do is cut a scrap of fabric a little larger than the area of your shorts you want to cover. I left about an inch on each edge—just to make sure I had a little bit of breathing room when it came to my stitching.

I used straight pins instead of the pins shown on the Free People website to attach my fabric to my shorts. I learned to sew from my mom and she always kept straight pins in her sewing kit. I bought a pack from McLannahan’s at the beginning of last semester and have been using them ever since.

I hand sewed the fabric to these shorts starting with the seam closest to the zipper. After sewing down this side, I pulled the fabric taut and repined it—making sure it wouldn’t bag or bubble after sewing. I then continued my sewing across the top and down the edge of the pocket, across the bottom, and finally down the outside seam.

As suggested by the Free People post, after I sewed down a seam, I trimmed the excess fabric as close to my seam as possible. I lost my scissors while tutu making with my THON committee and had to use mini sewing scissors this week—the most frustrating thing EVER…

After you’ve trimmed all your fabric, you’re left with an adorably updated new pair of shorts.

Why bother shopping when you can update all your clothes with just fabric and a sewing needle?!

My friend Alex has an entire drawer filled with the scraps of cut clothing. Cut t-shirt sleeves, cut dress bottoms—if she’s trimmed something, she has the scraps.

She finds some pretty creative ways to use them—one of which is tying the goodie bags she makes for our THON committee shut—but my favorite is the braided headband I saw her wearing today.

I loved it so much that I stole some scraps and begged her to teach me how to make it.

Thanks, Alex! This was the perfect lazy-Tuesday DIY and made a perfect lazy-Tuesday headband.

The Project: Braided T-Shirt Headband

The Inspiration: My friend Alex!

The Materials: T-Shirt scraps. Scissors.

The Steps: I started out with the cut bottom of a t-shirt. Alex had shortened the all the way around, so the t-shirt bottom was still connected in a loop. The first thing you need to do is cut the seam, so it is in one long strip.

This strip can usually be shortened A LOT, but make sure you keep it long enough that it will still wrap around your head and have some length on the ends to tie your band together.

The next thing you’ll want to do is cut your band to get it ready for braiding. Just like the scarf I made two weeks ago, you’ll want to cut your band into strips, leaving about an inch at the end so they remain connected. You’ll need three strips for this simple braid.

Now comes the easy part! Braid your three sections together, just like you would with your hair. You can make this as tight or loose as you want. I made mine somewhere in the middle, so you can see the braid, but it still has some ability to stretch.

Once you finish braiding, tie the two ends together. You can loop the open braided ends underneath the fabric that wasn’t cut to make it easier to tie. Trim any extra fabric from outside your knot.

And you’re left with a simple braided headband! Perfect for lazy days and when you just can’t figure out what to do with all your leftover fabric scraps. Thanks again, Alex! 🙂

THON is in less than two weeks and I couldn’t be more excited about it!

Last Friday night, my friend Lisa and I ventured out to Walmart in the freezing cold to buy 90 yards of tulle and bunches of elastic to make THON tutus with all the ladies of our committee.

Unlucky for me, in between helping others make their tutus, I didn’t have a chance to make mine.

Lucky for me, I realized today that it would be a silly and simple project to put up on my blog!

The Project: No Sew Tutu

The Inspiration: I found these simple directions and adapted from there!

The Materials: Approximately five yards of tulle. Scissors. Elastic to fit around your waist.

The Steps: The first thing I did was to have each of the girls from my committee measure out the elastic for their waistbands. When measuring the elastic, pull it so that it fits snuggly, but not so tightly that it is uncomfortable. Add about two inches to this measurement so that you can easily tie the two ends together in a knot.

For every tutu, you will need about five yards of tulle. Some girls ended up needing a little more, some girls ended up needing a little less. This really depends on the size you made your waistband.

Before you get started, you will need to take your tulle and fold it in half—lengthwise or hotdog style. From the folded edge, cut the tulle into strips. The length of the strip is entirely up to you. I found that strips of about 3 inches in width worked well to make the tutu nice and fluffy!

(If your tulle is extremely wide, you may want to consider cutting these strips in half once more. This also depends on how long you want the skirt of your tutu to be. In the photos that I am showing, I have cut my tulle in half.)

Next, take your strip of tulle and fold it in half forming a loop. Place the folded strip underneath your elastic waistband so that the looped half is facing upward. Grab the tails of your strip and pull them around the waistband and through the loop, forming what looks like a knot. Keep pulling until the tail ends stick out and the knot is firmly secured on the waistband.

You will need to repeat this step over and over and over again, until your entire waistband is covered.

Once you have completely covered your waistband, your tutu is almost complete! At this point, you can take your scissors and trim your skirt, add other colors in between the knots on your waistband, or bedazzle the edges of your skirt with sequins! I added a few pieces of a second color and evened out the length of my skirt.

Now you have the perfect tutu to rock during THON weekend–or to your next class!