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Hello! I'm Suzannah, a serious DIYer and mom of two little ones. Follow along with my DIY fixer upper house renovations, sewing and crafty projects, real food recipes, and de-stressing goals.
I believe you can love your home just the way it is, AND have the power to design and make big changes to make it better.
I'm also the author of DIY Wardrobe Makeovers!

I made myself some skinny jeans!

April 2012 Update: I no longer transform jeans this way!  You can basically do the following, but turn the jeans inside out first, and use a pair of existing skinnies as a sort of pattern.

I've been looking into cute outfits for an upcoming trip I'm taking to France, and I decided I needed some new skinny jeans, the plain leggings-ey kind.  Forever 21 has some for $9.50!  I fully intended to buy some, but they come in different lengths (which is so cool for people of different heights), and they didn't have my inseam at either of the Forever 21s I went to.  I thought about visiting a third, but when I was home I pulled out a pair of jeans from the bottom of my mending pile.  These were reeeeally flared and sort of short.  Not cute, definitely several years old but never worn much, I think I got them at the Goodwill Outlet.
I tried them on and pinned the part where I thought they should begin to taper.
I unpicked the topstitching on the inseam and took in both sides.  I trimmed the extra off the seam allowance and re-hemmed them.  These jeans were particularly easy to do this with because they were hemmed very weirdly... anyway.
Ta-da!
Instead of buying new jeans, ridiculously cheap though they may be, I took the eco-friendly route and made my own!

20 comments

  1. Those turned out really cute! Great job!

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  2. I've been wanting to do this for a while now - those look very cute on you!

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  3. Those are awesome! Great job

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  4. Great job! They look super cute.

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  5. they look just gorgeous...!

    I just discovered your blog and added it to my google reader. but the reeder just shows the beginning of your post (text). no pix at all! do you know how I can chance that?

    thanks a lot, you have a wonderful blog.
    greets from germany
    uli

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  6. you got great legs! show them off!

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  7. yes! that's how i have been altering my jeans for a while now, instead of just dissing the old ones i don't wear anymore! it's a really simple trick and hard to mess up..

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  8. Anonymous5/02/2010

    Great job, so cute!

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  9. Your jeans turned out great!

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  10. So excited to see how to do this! I have some jeans that I love the way they fit on top but am ready to try something new! Thank You!! You are very inspiring and creative! PARIS?!! Have a blast. PS don't buy bottled water from the street vendor. I'm just sayin'!!

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  11. Super cute! What a great way to save an out-of-date pair of jeans.

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  12. Wow! I sew a lot...but your blog teaches me a ton of new stuff and techniques! With heavy/thick jeans, I've never tried to make them thinner legged before due to the typical double stitches on the seams, but I never considered redoing the inseam! Thanks for the great suggestion! Do you dart the back of the jean waistband when your jeans gape at the rear end? or do you find you ever have that problem too?

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  13. hey, I did the same thing since I don't like the ready-made one which mostly low waist:)

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  14. Anonymous11/03/2010

    I remember doing this to my jeans in the 60's...we called it "pegging". And I have 2 pair of wide leg jeans in my closet right now that need to be pegged. Thanks for reminding me of something I already knew how to do.

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  15. hey i just made some skinny jeans inspired by your post. do you have any ideas on how to make jeans higher at the top? like as in, raise my low rise jeans? any clue? i dont wanna throw the jeans out, but since my waist has expanded a bit, i cant keep the jeans up. i have to keep pulling at them. but the rest of them fits great. please help

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  16. Thanks!
    @Faye, I don't think there's any way to make jeans have a higher rise. The zipper is a set length and all, and you can't add any in the inseam. The only thing you could do is take off the waistband and give them a much wider waistband, maybe of a contrast like navy twill or something, with more like two buttons at the waist. It would do the job but not be perfect!

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  17. thanks for replying! its hard to escape the maternity jean phase after a kid lol well im workin on it. but i will try to remove the waistband all together and add something. thanks for the tips!

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  18. Anonymous6/06/2011

    It will look more professional if you unravel the entire 'double' seam and stitch a regular flat or serged seam. This will eliminate the lump where you switch from double to regular seam.

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