After a semester filled with coffee runs, sushi dates, and buying endless amounts of textbooks required for classes, it’s easy to assume that there is no more green in the bank. But summer is quickly approaching, as well as the latest summer trends, and it is key to keep up with them. So, the issue is: how are we going to dress to impress while having a negative balance in our account? Thrifting!
I know some people have mixed feelings on thrifting, because it’s wearing second-hand clothes that have seen better days. Hopefully after reading this, though, those feelings will change!
A few summers ago, high waisted denim shorts became extremely popular. However, they went (and still do) for about $40+ in any department store, and I can tell you right now, I don’t have that kind of money. So, I decided to try making my own for dirt cheap.
I went to my local thrift store, looked in the men’s denim section, and found some pairs that would work. One tip for making your own denim pieces is to make rips, stick to a denim that doesn’t stretch. It makes the rips look more authentic.
When trying on the jeans, make sure that the waist area and upper thigh area fit nicely, but everything else doesn’t matter. It’ll be cut off eventually. Once you’ve found the perfect pair, go ahead and check out. And don’t fret, because all you’ll be coughing over is a maximum of $5!
Next step is put them on, and then with a pen, draw where you plan to cut them and transform them into shorts. I always tend to make the length shorter on the outer thighs and then angle it longer into the inseam. After you cut, the fun begins!
You can do whatever you want to customize your shorts. My personal fave is fraying the ends and then creating rips. Although this step is quite tedious, the product is worth it. All you need is scissors and tweezers. It might be easier to Youtube a video of someone doing it, but it’s pretty simple once you get the hang of it!
For fraying the ends, take your tweezers and start pulling the white strands out. It’s that easy! For creating holes, all you’re doing is cutting slits in the designated spot and then pulling the blue denim strings out, which leaves only the white strings.
The final step is throw the pair in the wash to finalize the fraying and then, bam, you have a cute pair of $5 denim jean shorts that look like $40!
You can repeat these steps with long denim maxi skirts to create a mini skirt. There are other ways to customize besides fraying. You can always dye or paint designs on the denim or buy cute patches to sew on! All these ways allow a girl to look fabulous on a college budget!