Upcycled Denim Shorts

In honor of Earth Day, I decided to do a couple denim upcycle/refashion projects. One of my goals for this year is to do more upcycling. While sewing, I watched a documentary on Netflix called The True Cost.  The True Cost is about the clothing we wear, the people who make it, and the impact our clothing is having on the world. Did you know that the fashion industry is the #2 most polluting industry on Earth second only to the oil industry?!?! 

According to the documentary, the main problem is referred to as "fast fashion." Basically, when we shop at stores like Forever 21, H&M, etc. that offer fashionable and very affordable (cheap) clothing, we're buying clothes that are only meant to be worn for a short period of time and then tossed whether you donate it to charity or actually throw it away. Since fashion is being seen as a disposable product, each American throws away about 82 pounds of textile waste a year.... That's 11 million tons of textile waste in the US alone, and it's not biodegradable. Therefore, these clothes are in the landfills for 200+ years polluting the planet and emitting harmful gases into our air. There are other terrible effects of fast fashion like unsafe work conditions for workers in developing countries and chemical pollution. To find out more, you can watch The True Cost on Netflix, and you can visit their website ( http://truecostmovie.com/) to learn more.

So back to the shorts! I made a pair of upcycled denim shorts for my son using a pair of my husband's jeans that he hasn't worn in years. To make the shorts, I used the FREE Sunny Day Shorts pattern. The pattern was pretty easy to follow.

Here are the jeans in their original form.

I thought the design on the pockets was cool, so I had to use them on the new shorts.

I have a confession... I decided after the shorts were all sewn together to add the pockets. Since they're small shorts (size 18 months), I had a hard time trying to sew the pockets on, so.... I hot glued them on!

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I'm so happy that the shorts fit my son perfectly!