This weeks TB Gang Tutorial comes from our own tb forum member, the cool cat, Ludeykrus!

 Howdy howdy howdy. Threadbanger has given a lot to me, so I thought I might try to give something back. Knowing my luck, though, this has been documented 37 times already on here... oh well, if so. I'll try to take more pics and post up stuff I've done, this just happens to be the last thing I did recently.

I have had this pair of denim shorts sitting in a drawer for many years now. They were an awful washed out shade of light blue, which I hate. I tried dying them (and a denim jacket) a deep black/bruise blue...

but I suck at mixing Ritt dyes and I ended up with this bright royal blue mess. So now I'm just messing around with them to try to see if I can make them into something I would actually wear. I decided that they at least needed to be slimmed/tapered.

First, the fugly shorts that went under the knife:

 Taking a look at the seams, the hem is is a normal straight stitch hem, and the inner seam is a flat felled seam made with two chainstitches:

First, I needed to bust the hems:

 Then I busted the inside stitch of the inseam's felled seam, leaving just one seam holding the inner seam together:

With the shorts turned inside out, put them on and pinch-n-pin them to find where the new seam should be:

Run a quick basting stitch:

Turn them right side out, and try them on. If they need to be slimmed or let out, now you do so and get the final form right. I slimmed one leg at a time so a comparison could be made, though you can't really see much... :

Once the shape is right, you need to finish up the inseam with a final seam. You could make another flat felled seam like the original inseam, but I'm lazy and didn't care to put that much time into it. I serged the seam, using a strong denim thread for the outer needle seam, and a thicker cotton thread on the inner needle seam (pics were taken while monkeying with the machine, ignore the settings):

Now, press the seam flat:

Topstitch the seam to hold it flat:

Cut hem to length wanted, then straight stitch the hem:

The finished seam:

....and the finished shorts!

Hope this helps someone out!

Thank you Ludeykrus for your awsome tutorial for guys and gals! YAY!!

 If you wish to see more helpfull tutorials, or want to submit one, visit our "Tutorial Lab" over on the forums!

See ya there!!!

<3 Your Pals, Tany and Addie!