flares to skinnies

I do not own a pair of skinny jeans. I am worried that I would look uneven, you know…too skinny on the bottom. I always buck the trends until I have no choice.
So I have these jeans that are just a little too short and they fit just right up top. Hmmm, they are just right for an upcycle.

Here’s how to turn your pair of flares into skinnies:

Start with a pair of jeans.

Turn them inside out. You like my fashion statement?

Grabbing along the sides, pin them where they’re comfortable. I wanted mine to be straight and skinny, not skin tight and bunchy.

Sew a basting stitch along the pins. Make sure to back stictch your beginning and ending stiches.

Here’s what you’ll end up with.

Trim the extra material off, but not too close to the stitch. I cut mine about 3/4 of an inch away. You’ll get closer later on.
(you can see in this pic that I failed to do my bottom hem first. if you plan to hem the bottom, do it first, then stitch up the sides.)

Here’s the difference. Sorry about the dirty carpet. My craft space is in the garage and I have a huge carpet area but I still have kids out there. It’s no sanctuary. =)

Once the legs are even and the hems are done, you can clean up the inside hem. Cut about 1/4 inch from the seam.

Set your stitch to a zig-zag and run it along the very edge of the seam. This will prevent fraying. In addition, I adjusted my stitch to a shorter length and ran a second stitch (in a dark blue color) along the length of each leg for added strength. I simply failed to take a pic of that step. It’s really important. Then when you turn the pants right-side out, you can trim any white threads you see and the seam is still intact.

Here’s the final fitting. The legs are really both the same width even though it doesn’t look like it in this pic. I had to bend forward to take this pic so they got a little weird.