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DIY Fashion Blog: Lace Back Pocket Shorts & Jeans

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at CMU chapter.

About the Project: I made these shorts while it was still summer, but don’t worry about the cold weather—you can do the same thing to jeans and wear them in the winter! They add a sweet and feminine flair to your everyday outfit.

Materials Needed:

  • Dark wash shorts or jeans (Make sure the material is stretchier and thinner than normal)
  • Lace fabric (You can buy a yard or two from a craft store)
  • Needle and thread (The thread should be the same color as the lace)
  • Sewing pins
  • Paper
  • Scissors

Step-By-Step:

  1. Take your shorts or jeans and flip them over to the back. Using your paper, cut out the shape of the back pocket, but make the cutout larger than the actual pocket.
  1. Lay your lace fabric over the paper cutout and trim the lace according to the shape. You will be left with a lace cutout that you will sew onto the pocket(s).
  1. Taking your lace cutout, lay it on top of the pocket you wish to sew. The cutout is larger than the actual pocket, so fold the extra fabric inwards on all sides. This not only allows for easier sewing, but because the lace edges are thicker, the lace will not unravel.
  1. Use your sewing pins and pin down the sides so you can easily sew the lace on the pocket.
  1. From there, take your needle and thread and start sewing away at the edges of the pocket. With these pockets, you must hand sew because logistically it is more precise than a sewing machine. It will take you longer than most projects, but your shorts or jeans will turn out looking fabulous! As always, your outfit should be simple to let these lace accents stand out. You can use black lace as well, sewing on a gray or lighter wash denim.
  1. Optional: You can choose how many pockets you want to sew—I sewed on both back pockets and the small front pocket. If you are going for an asymmetrical look, you can choose to only sew one back pocket.
Laura Stiles is a Creative Writing, Professional Writing double major at Carnegie Mellon University who will be graduating in May 2014. In addition to being Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Carnegie Mellon chapter of HerCampus.com, she is Co-Prose Editor of The Oakland Review, Carnegie Mellon’s literary-arts journal, a manuscript reader for Carnegie Mellon University Press, and has copy-edited for Carnegie Mellon’s newspaper, The Tartan. She was also Communications and Arts Management Intern at The Hillman Center for Performing Arts in summer 2012, and is ecstatic to be studying abroad in Sheffield, England in spring 2013. In her free time, she enjoys singing along to music on long car rides, spontaneously kicking off her shoes to explore lakes and creeks, and curling up with a soft blanket and a captivating book. She was also recently pleasantly surprised to discover that she has a taste for sushi.