From pants to shorts

Here, pants tears before they are outgrown. It is often the knees that have taken a beating from the children crawling around on the floor and playing.
Here I will show a way to turn pants into shorts to extend the use of the textile.

I have used a pair of ripped Jonieleggings in this description.

You do not need any extra material beyond what you normally have on your sewing table, such as shears, a marking pen, and a tape measure.

You can click on the images in the description to make them larger.

Get a pair of pants or leggings that you want to turn into shorts.

Here is a pair with ripped knees, but you can also shorten outgrown pants if they still fit around the seat and waist.

Fold the pants at the center front waist seam and the center back waist seam, so that the pants are lying in front of you with the outer legs facing the table.

Roll up one leg so that the crotch and the inseam become visible.

Measure from the crotch how long you want the shorts to be and add a hem length, for example 2–3 cm.

Make a marking where you are going to cut off the pant leg. It is now good to have an angle ruler (or set square) as you need to make the line at 90 degrees to the inseam.

Turn the pants so that the other leg is underneath. Cut the second leg along the bottom edge of the already cut leg.

In this picture, you see the difference between cutting off the legs 'straight across' (white line) when they are positioned according to the first picture, versus using the inseam as a guide instead.

The difference in the final result is that you will get a slanted bottom edge on the shorts if you cut them straight across. The shorts would be longer on the outside of the leg than on the inside of the leg.

Hem the bottom of the leg by folding in your hem allowance towards the wrong side [of the fabric]. Pin, press, and sew.

If you have stretchy fabric, you need to sew with a stretch stitch; otherwise, you can use any stitch you like.

Now you have turned a pair of pants into shorts!