You can easily stretch the life of a pair of jeans by making them into shorts. When your kids tear the knees or they get too short but the waist still fits cut the legs off and stitch a hem. This is especially nice because you can choose how short you want the shorts to be.Start by cutting one of the legs off just above the tear (or however short you want them), next, fold them over.
You will want to make sure that the waist lines up, otherwise the legs won't match. Then, cut off the second leg.
Zig-zag stitch the bottom of the short legs. This will keep them from fraying.
Turn them inside out and pin the edges up.
Stitch the hems with jean grade thread and viola!
