First of all, this fringe hem DIY project is not an original idea of mine. My knowledge of this look and how to achieve it comes from one of the contributors to the August edition of the monthly How I Wear My series that is the brainchild of Adrienne at The Rich Life In Wine Country and Jill at Everything Just So. For thier latest feature, Adrienne and Jill had selected cropped pants as the theme and as the pictures attest, cropped pants are being worn for all occasions and in a variety of styles. These are the photos of my cropped pants looks that appear in their posts.
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The inspiration contributor, Glenda at So What To Twenty, wore a pair of fringe hem crops that she had had the audacity (her words, not mine) to create herself with a little help from the following YouTube video published by Rachel Zoe.
In Glenda’s version, the fringe has quite a fluffy look, almost like there are little feather boas at the bottom of her pants. I’m not very keen on the whole destroyed denim look with rips and tears that’s so popular now but a fringe hem is a version of the trend I can embrace. However, this look was running up against another trend that I hadn’t yet been willing to embrace, cropped flares.
Not wanting to invest a lot into a trend I wasn’t hot on, I had done a little research into the differences in proportions between straight leg, flared, and bootleg cut pants to determine the difficulty of taking a pair of jeans I already owned and converting them into a pair of cropped flares. That was a far as I got with that project and trying cropped flares until recently, when I found a pair from Loft at a local Good Will (and it’s tag was the color of the week so 50% off, to boot).
Once I had a pair of cropped flares in hand, a vision of Glenda’s fringe hem crops popped into my head but I hesitated at the thought of ruining my new-to-me pants. Ah, but now that I had an actual template for the proportions of cropped flares, I could revisit the idea of using a pair of jeans I already own. The result of this effort is what you see in the photos that follow.
These are the cropped flares, front and side view. It isn’t my usual format to not show my face in photos but I wanted the focus (ha ha) to be on the project. I’ll be showing these again in an upcoming post.
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I’d initially planned to fringe (can I use that word as a verb?) a pair of black denim jeans but as I was going through all of my denim, I found that I had two identical pairs of Sweethearts from Old Navy (I think one pair had also been a thrift store bargain) so I decided to do the project on both a pair of black and blue denim jeans. In making my selections, I laid out the jeans underneath the cropped flares to be sure that their proportions were close to those of my template pair. The next step was to start cutting.
A quick wash and tumble in the dryer was all it took to finish this project. In the video, there is an additional step of ironing the fringe and trimming long threads that didn’t seem necessary to me. Here are the before and after photos for each of the jeans.
Black Denim – Before
After
Blue Denim – Before
After
I have a funny side story to share. In preparation for taking these photos, I had explained to my photographer (aka The Husband) about the DIY project and described my vision for the images that I wanted for the post. As I changed into the blue denim jeans for the before photos, The Husband said that he liked them on me as they were and expressed dismay that I would be altering the look of them. When I assured him that I had another identical pair, his dismay was redirected to the apparent excesses of my wardrobe. Sometimes, there’s no pleasing that man. Fine, whatever.
Confession time … I didn’t rewatch the video before I started this project. I was trusting my memory to remember the instructions. As a result, I didn’t make the fringes long enough on either pair but I didn’t cut the pants too short so it’s fixable. I actually like the way the black denim pants look as they are and I’ll be showing them off in my outfit in next Saturday’s post. The fringe on the blue denim pants need to be longer and I will be fixing that before you see them in my next In Real Life post.
In Color My World: Moss+Black+Poppy, I shared that the inspiration for that color combination came from the September issue of InStyle magazine and this time with the fringe hem look, I’ve been inspired by another blogger. How aware of you of the influences on your style and the choices you make with your wardrobe? Is it important to you to be original or are you happy to learn from others?
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12 Comments
What a great DIY…especially if you get a pair of jeans that is too long (never happens, right?)
jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
ps..FYI, your image isn’t showing up on my email bloglovin’ feed. I do remember having to go change something awhile back (although I can’t remember what it was—try googling it would be my suggestion, if you care!!)
I never thought of fringing as a way to shorten jeans that are too long … great idea, Jodie. And yes, I’m aware of the lack of image in Bloglovin and I’ve looked on that website for a solution but it wasn’t very helpful. It’s been on my list to contact their support but I will try to see if I can a fix for the problem via Google.
Very cool idea Rena! With the jeans I wore today I was really loving the raw hem, this is really neat! I just have a fear I might mess them up!
Thanks for linking up with Turning heads tuesday
jess xx
http://www.elegantlydressedandstylish.com
Jess, I understand the fear of messing up as I was a bit nervous but my investment was only about $5 so if I screwed up, I could afford to try it again. I loved you raw hem look and I’ve contemplated trying that on some pants as well.
Awesome!
OXOX
Dawn Lucy
http://fashionshouldbefun.blogspot.com
Thanks!
I Love this DIY! What a fantastic post.
xoxo Heather
The Sugar Ribbon Blogger
http://www.thesugarribbon.com/blog
THANK YOU for sharing!! I can’t wait to try this myself!!!
I can’t work out if I like them or not! I’m going to give it a try with an older pair of jeans. They actually look fab on you. Defo will try and let you know how I get on and what I think on me! So interesting thanks Hun. x Jacqui
http://www.mummabstylish.com
Please do let me know how it turned out. With this project, it’s SO easy to achieve a current trend without spending big $$$$.
Hi Rena, I’m stopping by from Visible Monday. I saw your fringed hem and wanted to read your idea on them. Mine have a feathered appearance because I cut my strip thin and I used a lighter weight boyfriend jean, which is easier to fray. I noticed thicker denim doesn’t achieve the same results. I hope you enjoy wearing yours. I LOVE rocking mine.
Glenda, I’m so glad that you’ve stopped by and commented. I realize now that I should have made the strips thinner and longer so I’ve tried to fix that on the blue denims. I’ll be showing them in a post next Saturday. I’ve worn the black denims twice already and they’re in another post this week so ya, I’m enjoying them. Thanks again for the inspiration!