A few weeks ago I went in search of some skinny jeans at the store. You know me, they had to be cheap! I tried on so many pairs of jeans with no luck. Some of the jeans didn't have pockets, the buttons were fake, there were elastic waists in others...it was a mess. I thought, I have some jeans at home I like that were in my give away pile, why don't I try to make them skinny. So I did. And this is what I came up with. Cute right?
**updated to add some newer pictures of my skinny jeans in action, not just of me in my lumberjack shirt.
Here's you how do it. Take one of your old pairs of jeans and put them on.
Then turn them inside out.
Find the thick seam on your jeans. You don't want to use that. Find the thinner seam. I found that it's usually on the outside of the pants. Starting just above the knee all the way down to the ankle, pin along pulling your jeans tight as you go, but making sure the inside thick seam is always laying straight along your leg. Can you see the pins down the side?
Here they are closer. Now take off the jeans carefully.
Because that line by the knee is such a sharp corner, you need to make a nice line to ease into the existing seam. I used a nice big yard stick and a sharpie marker.
Take your sharpie and mark on the OUTSIDE of the pinned line (disregard the picture above, yes, I am marking the inside and I had to do it over!). To clarify, make the line to the right of your pins that you put on your pants on the right leg, to the left on the left side of the pants, closest to the part you are going to cut off.
AGAIN, make the line on the outside of the pins, closest to where you are going to cut off.
Starting at the ankle and working your way up, follow your sharpie line and stitch making sure the fabric is tight and laying flat.
IMPORTANT: Try on your pants after you finish sewing them. See if they fit the way you want them to. If they don't, take the seam out and try again. If they do, great. Cut the extra fabric off about 1/4 inch from the stitched line.
Then serge them up. If you don't have a serger, use a zig zag stitch or use fray check. Jeans fray and when you wash them the seam can unravel and open up.
And that's it! It took me less than a half an hour. Go try it, and let me know how it worked for you.
