Tuesday Tutorial: Boot to Skinny

As I mentioned yesterday my focus for the week was to go through my clothes, try everything on and get rid of the things I don't like. I found a few things that had a category all their own. Basically I made a fix pile. These are clothes I don't particularly like for fit reasons but otherwise thought were fine. Among these was a pair of jeans that were boot cut, but were a little funny in the calf area. I'm not too sure why, they just were. It was like they were too wide but weren't flares. And they were too long. 

I don't know if I've mentioned it before but I'm slow getting into the skinny jean trend. I own a pair of black skinny jeans and that's it. After seeing an article this week on how the flared jeans are coming back but skinny jeans aren't going anywhere, I decided to change the weird bootcut jeans into skinny jeans. Here's how you can do it too.

 First you want to try the jeans on inside out. Jeans all have either the outside seam or inside leg seam that looks like it can be taken in. It's not the one with bulky decorative stitching. So check before you pin to determine if you're taking fabric from the outside of the leg or the inside. My jeans could be taken from the outside. (I think most jeans can be taken in from the outside of the leg).

 So you can see my pins here. I don't want them to be skin tight but I definitely want them to be skinny. Carefully take your pants off and sew along the pins.

 Try them on again just to make sure. When you're happy with the fit, take a deep breath and cut the extra fabric away. Remind yourself you were going to get rid of these pants anyway, so if you botch it you can just get rid of them. To avoid fraying I used pinking shears and then a large zigzag stitch along the edge.

 Try them on again. And mark where you need to hem them, if you do. I definitely do. There are many great tutorials on hemming jeans but since my jeans were sewn with white thread I just cut off the extra, folded up twice and sewed around to make a new hem. I don't think anyone can tell. Seriously. Oh and you'll need a heavy duty needle. I broke one because it wasn't for heavy fabric.

 Here they are. All done.

 And here they are with boots. Lovely. So, try it. I'd love to see what you come up with.