Greetings salamanders, creatures of fire. I’m sure your little elemental hearts are going to be all afire over my nearly-not-even-a-project that I worked on today. In short (yes, a pun. yes, intentional) I broke down and bought some cargo-style crops a while back. I thought of making them myself, but they were the right price and fit well enough. They are mainly dog-walking pants. I like all the pockets for the bags, phones, ipods, gentle leader and emergency energy bar. I sort of like cropped cargos with lots of zippers and strings hanging from them – and I don’t really want to make them. Not only do I not want to mess around with all those pockets, but I’ve never come across fabric that feels quite right. I like the sporty, lightweight stuff that most RTW crops are made from. So anyway, I bought them, but they were a little floppy legged and I did what any accomplished sewist would do. I fixed the flop with a couple of shoe laces. Behold.
*For poor salamanders who are unfamiliar with MacGyver, he was a super-rad crime fighter and lead character in the tv show MacGyver which started airing in the 80’s. He could fix anything. With a paperclip and duct tape. Most of my home decorating attempts throughout my 20’s were heavily based on techniques learned from watching that show and I still tend to go with the duct tape approach before actually obtaining the proper resources and/or tools. Think fashioning curtain rods from wooden skewers, duct tape and then coloring it with a Sharpie marker. Wow! What a great idea – and it just came to me NOW!!
OK, now behold!!
Yay shoelaces! Here’s the before picture. I hope you enjoy the return of the mirror photos. I was too lazy to go ALL THE WAY across the hall to take pictures in my normal spot with a tripod. And I don’t have any magical salamander assistants, so I just went back to my evil mirror-ways.
And here are my supplies. Crops and shoelaces.
Oh, OK. I also used a seam ripper. And in a few steps, a safety pin. Below we’re looking at the inside hem on one of the legs. After poking around a bit, I determined that the hem was just a turn-up-and-sew – no other interfacing or other obstacle for using the existing hem as a casing for my ties shoelaces. I just unpicked a few stitches on the inside of the hem on the outseam (the seam of the crops that is on the outside of my leg.)
Once I unpicked a few stitches, I stuck the seam ripper all the way in to make sure that everything was nice and open. There were a few stitches on the inside that I also had to pick.
Next, I ‘threaded’ the shoelace onto a safety pin. The safety pin will help me pull the thread through my hem/casing. If you’re a sewing newbie, this is also what I do when I’m pulling elastic through a casing.
In she goes!
I’m through! I pulled the ends to even them up – just so I’d be safe from losing my shoelace back in the casing! Now I’m off to try them on.
OK, I tried ‘em on and tightened the shoestring to about where I’d like to wear them.
I tied a knot about where I’d like to trim the shoelace. I probably could also melt the end, but melting off the ends of things sort of freaks me out. I went with knots.
Last step, snip off the shoelaces!
Before and after!
And that, my salamanders, is how I fixed my crops with a shoelace. While I still think they’re pretty frumpster, the original floppy legs REALLY made me feel like I should head off to shop at J.C. Penney (ok, I never shop at J.C. Penny… they may have super stylin’ duds for all I know.) The ties make ‘em slightly more bearable. And, after all, the pockets are stuffed with plastic doggie bags… See you on the flip side, creatures of fire!
I love this! It also makes me wonder if I should put a hem casing on the plaid patchwork skirt I wore yesterday. I think it's totally frumpster in fit, and yet I wear it despite its lack of perfection…
i like this a lot. i can do this with some pants that i was going to give to gw. this never crossed my mind thanx
MacGyver as a verb. Awesome.
Luv-it! I agree re: finding the right fabric for cargo-pants, I've never seen the same type of stuff in fabric stores 🙁
I love what you've done with the laces – v. clever. Maybe for future MacGyvering you could try spring-loaded cord locks (I bought loads like 20-30x off of eBay a few years ago – I only needed x2, so if want a couple email me & I'll try to find them in my stash & send them to you!)
P.S. If you used cord-locks you could change-up the laces for black elastic, it'd make the pants easier to get on/off your feet without having to undo the degree of "gathering" you prefer around your calves each time 🙂
May I ask where you obtained the pre-MacGyvered (love that Richard Dean Anderson!) cargos? I could use such a pair for walking my beasties, hands free. Sandals are to die for, btw.
love it! I'm a huge fan of cropped cargo skirts myself, but more than anythign, I adore my collection of cargo skirts…
It makes me really sad that you feel like you have to explain who MacGyver is. What is the world coming to? That ought to be required viewing for our children today (although Burn Notice has a delightfully similar protagonist).
laura – i'm intrigued, you mean at the bottom of a skirt? what style skirt?
gemini! Yay! I'm glad it was helpful!
Jane – I think it MUST be in the dictionary by now…
Claire – Funny! I had gotten the elastic cord (mine was white, though) and cord stops, but while obsessively trying on shoes at Target, I saw the shoelaces and decided to go with those because the color was a bit better! I've never actually put in those cord stops. I'm a bit intimidated!
Sarajane – pants are from Avenue. Not only do they have a tie at the waist in addition to the zip/button, but Avenue did something to how they make pants in the last year that makes them fit me much better – not so much gaping in the back! And thanks on the shoes. I'm flatform obsessed and these are SUPER cushy and comfy!
Binky! Cargo skirts! there's a pair of 'scooters' (that's what the website says, really) at lane bryant that are are awesome-o cargo skirts with built in SHORTS!! I will be adding those to my wardrobe if I can either bring myself to spend $55 on a pair of scooters or they still have mine in stock when they go on sale…
Katie – Hee hee! I included my footnote more for non-US readers (not sure where it aired!!), than because I thought I was referencing a 'vintage' tv show!! EVERYONE knows who Macgyver is in the States, right? (PS…also struck me as funny… I have no idea what burn notice is! Sounds scary!)
You make sewing look so easy… which is far from the case for Miss Un-Coordinated Fingers here haha.
Love what you did with the pants! 🙂
xoxo,
Addie
The Cat Hag
So funny! They should do a MacGyver challenge on project runway. Give every contestant shoelaces, duct tape and gum then tell them to "Make It Work".