A pair of shorts from a pair of jeans
This activity was developed by a group of SFT students.
This text is a student's description of how to make a pair of shorts from an old pair of jeans.
In this activity, you will read the instructions, and then use the information to put nine diagrams into the correct sequence. Then you will write an instruction for each diagram.
Do you have a pair of jeans which you don't wear any more because they are too short, or because the bottoms are frayed? Don't throw them away! You can make a useful pair of shorts from them.
In order to do a good job it is advisable to get a friend to help you. The best idea is to put on the jeans and ask a friend to mark a cutting line. He can use either chalk or a marking pen. You will, of course, need to decide what length you want the shorts to be before he begins. While he is marking the line it is important that you stand straight on a level surface. He should then draw a cutting line round the first edge, making sure the line is level when looked at from both the back and the front. The second leg is then marked in the same way, but of course it should be marked at exactly the same level as the first leg.
After you have taken off the jeans, use a fairly large, sharp pair of scissors to cut along the two cutting lines. After this, the cut edges can be made more attractive by fraying. This is best done with a darning needle. You use the needle to loosen and push down the horizontal white threads, which are then pulled away, leaving the blue vertical threads to form a frayed edge. You will probably find you need to remove at least twenty threads to get the right effect.