Image credit: Albert Muzquiz, Instagram 

What you need 

The ingredients for the wonderful, heady cocktail of jorts are very simple. All you need is a pair of old jeans, a pair of scissors, a pencil, and some shorts that fit you well.

The choice of the jeans is the most important part here. If they are too skinny up top, no amount of length will make them baggy and vice versa. If you don’t have any jeans that suit your taste, check your local op shop. 

Measuring

Before you measure, you need to know what you are looking for. That’s where your template shorts come in. The best way to get a perfect pair of jorts is to base them off other shorts that you already consider perfect. Then it’s almost as simple as copy and paste. 

If you don’t have a good pair of shorts you can use as a template, we would always recommend going a little longer than what you are aiming for as you can cut it shorter, but you can’t magic back denim that you’ve dismembered. 

If you have a template, simply lay your jeans down flat and then lay your shorts over the top. Then, grab your pencil and trace along the hem of the shorts. A ruler (or a spine of a book if you’re being thrifty) will help you keep it straight. If you don’t have a template, things will be a little trickier. The best way in that case is to put the jeans on and make a little mark with the pencil where you want the length to be before taking them off and using your ruler/book to finish the line.