The last thing I heard before I went to bed last night was the peepers outside; a sure sign of spring in New England. It is time for the next step in making the changeover to spring clothes. I have said good-by to everything with fur and all of the heavy wintry sweaters and am now committed to making my closet transition to spring. My plan for today is to go through my pants, jeans and capris in my closet as well as my off season closet. I need to see what will work again this year and what I can pack away or finally say good-bye to and donate to Goodwill. This is where I use my keen designer’s eye to see how I can repurpose something before giving it the heeve-ho. I am going to give you some tips for saving a little money and staying au courant without running to the mall. Get inspired by perusing the fashion sites and magazines to see what the trends are for the season. I have been seeing a lot of narrow cropped pants, capri jeans, drawstring bottom cargo capris, Bermuda shorts, and fuller short shorts. Now figure out which styles will work for your body type and which styles are age appropriate…..(short shorts?). Here are a few suggestions which will involve having a pair of scissors, iron-on hem tape, or for the craftier person, a sewing machine. The most obvious change you can make to a pair of straight or skinny jeans that have shrunk in length is to roll the hem. You might have to cut them first to get rid of some of the bulk before cuffing them to mid-calf. They can also be cut to above the knee to Bermuda shorts.Don’t limit your redesign to just jeans. Flared pants such as khakis can always be shortened to above the knee as well. Just add about an inch and a half to the length you want, turn up that much and press and stitch the hem or if you are really challenged, use iron-on hem tape.


Cargo pants can also be shortened to capri length or shorts if they are loose enough. To make them drawstring on the bottom, turn up an inch and a half and before completely finishing the hem, open the side seam just enough to run a half inch cord or tape through. You can find a cotton tape to match in the notions department of any fabric store. Or if that is too much trouble, just cuff them but make sure they are not too loose at the bottom or they will look like clown pants.

If it has been a while since you have gone through your old clothes, you probably have some pleated pants that can also be converted, but be careful because pleats are resurfacing. Pleated pants can be made into short-shorts by virtually cutting the legs off if they are wide leg pants. If they are narrow, then cut them to below the knee for a modern version of the cropped pants. You can also taper a flared pant by cutting and inch and a half longer than you want to wear them, and restitch the side seams and inside seams equally to the desired width at the bottom. This is a bit trickier but if done right will look great.

With a little time and effort and minimal skill, you can morph your tired clothing into styles that are up-to-date. Just think of how much money you will have saved…………..that you can now spend on SHOES!!!