Altering Men's Shorts to Fit a Woman

 Hello Readers. I found these white men's board shorts at a clothes swap and I thought white linen shorts like this would be great for summer. They were designed for a man but maybe I could make them work for me. 

Before and after.

These shorts were long and were not cut for a woman. Men's pants and shorts are usually cut very straight, they aren't designed for a woman's more curvy figure. I was going to re-cut the shorts and there was a draw-string and that would help make the waist fit well. Let's see what I can do. 

 

I tried the shorts on inside out and checked the fit. I marked the side with blue sewing chalk where I wanted to make the new side seam. The shorts just needed to be more narrow at the waist and just a bit more narrow through the hips and legs. You can adjust this as you need for your body shape.

 

I cut the shorts to a shorter length. I will need to hem them later but this is a good start and it got some of the extra fabric out of the way. 

 

I cut the extra fabric off the side seams where the blue marks were. That cut into some of the pockets. I cut the rest of the pockets along the top, just under the waistband. These pockets were going to have to be taken out. It would be difficult to keep them and alter the size. The shorts had back pockets so, it's fine. 

 

The front and back of the shorts were cut to the size I wanted and just needed to be sewn together.

 

I used my serger to sew the side seams. This linen fabric will fray like crazy so the serger is great to sew the new side seams and keep the material nice and neat inside the shorts. You can also use the zigzag stitch on your sewing machine for this. Just sew along the edge of the fabric and the zigzag will wrap around the edge. 

 

I ironed the new hem in place so it would be nice and neat when I sewed it in place. I turned the edge in twice and ironed all along the leg opening. 

 

I used my sewing machine to sew the new hem in place and since these shorts are white, it was easy to match the thread. 

 

My new shorts were done. The waist tie is still in place. The draw-string is attached at the sides in the new side seams. I tried to make the waistband fit around my waist well but the drawstring still works in front of the shorts, I can still use that to get the fit just right around the waist. 

 

 The back pockets and the seams are all white and they can show through the shorts. White fabric can be a bit sheer. Beige underwear didn't quite work with these shorts, the seams still stood out. I found that white underwear in a boy-shorts style like these, worked better with these white linen shorts. I was always taught to go with a color that matches the skin tone but in this case, the white underwear was much better.

 

The new shorts fit well. White linen is nice and cool in summer, and linen breathes so well in the heat too. Stay cool everyone and go make something fun for yourself.