Shecky’s

With the official start of summer a mere few days away, who isn’t extremely excited to finally sport all those summer styles that you’ve been anxiously awaiting all year to break out at the beach? As many new trends grace the covers of magazines and perch in the windows of our favorite boutiques, it’s hard for us sartorial sisters to not want it all, but seriously, who can afford to stock up on all of the sensational trends this season? Well you can have it all with these on-a-mini-budget DIY fashions that will seriously amp up your style this summer. You’ll be totally on trend but not have to run the risk of your fellow fashionistas having the same look as you, because these DIY styles are truly your own!

-Casey Schmieder

Dip-Dyed Jean Shorts

It’s always fun to go wardrobe shopping at the start of the summer season, but for many girls on a budget out there, its hard for us to choose which shorts to snatch up from the stores. Since many of the sensational shorts styles today are totally trendy, it’s hard to fork over a substantial sum of dough on shorts that may only last a season or two. Instead of going back and forth in your mind about the absolutely awesome shorts you saw in that boutique window, you can now turn your old denim duds into trendy Dip-Dyed High-Waisted Denim Shorts from Keep Calm and DIY!

What you’ll need: An old pair of light jeans (preferably high-waisted), bleach, a pen, scissors, sandpaper, an old bucket, a yardstick, gloves, distilled white vinegar, and styling studs (optional).

What you’ll do:
1. First, you’ll need to mark off the jeans with your pen at the point you want to cut them. It’s best to do this step while the jeans are on your body or after you size them up to your favorite shorts.
2. Cut the jeans (but be careful!) at the line you created. Once you have the jeans cut, rub the sandpaper back and forth on the cut, allowing you to fabulously fray up your shorts.
3. Place the yardstick through the loops of the jeans, then gently place the shorts into the bucket of bleach, allowing the yardstick to hold the shorts up at the side of the bucket. Be careful not to splash the bleach, because while these dip-dyed jeans may be absolutely adorable, bleach stains on your fabulous frocks won’t. You may want to do this process outside—no one needs the harmful bleach fumes!
4. Next, place the jean shorts in the distilled vinegar for about 10 minutes—this stops the bleaching process and is extremely important. You can then add studs to the pockets of the jeans for a fab finished look!

Image Credit: keepcalmanddiy.blogspot.com