Bootleg to Skinny

I bought some bootleg jeans a few months ago. They were too short for bootleg jeans but looked great tucked into boots. I decided to make it a little easier for myself and just make them into skinnies.

I looked at Pinterest for some inspiration and direction and found ideas here, here and here.

Here are the jeans before they were hit with the skinny.

Turn the pants inside out and put them back on.

Pin up the side as tight as you want the legs to be. You want to pin on the opposite of the side that has a thicker seam, for most jeans this means pinning along the outer side.

Carefully take off the jeans. If your legs are anything like mine it won't exactly be a straight diagonal line.

That is why the yard stick is pulled out. With it make a diagonal line connecting the top and bottom needles trying to align it with as many needles as possible. Try not to have too many flash backs to high school math classes.

With chalk, magic marker, or a tailor's pencil trace along the yard stick to make the line that you will stitch along. At first I used a piece of chalk....

And then I was super excited to find a tailor's pen!!

I got even more excited when I tried back on the jeans with one leg done.

I did the same thing with the other leg. Inside out, pin up the side, use a yardstick to make the line, and stich down the seam.

When I was done with that I tried the jeans on, right side out, to make sure I liked the result before I did any cutting. I loved how they looked so I took the plunge and cut up the side. If I had a serger I would serge the edge to prevent fraying but for right now we are going to risk fraying.

The completed look!!

I would be lying if I said the alteration was invisible but if you know it is there and look you can see the difference in the stitching, but who is really going to notice it!!

And they completely fit the purpose of fitting into boots if I do say so myself. No tugging, tucking, and scrunching. Easily fits smoothly into the boots without risk of riding up and looking sloppy.

I have a feeling these are going to get alot of use during the next few months of boot season.

If you succeed in transforming a pair of bootleg jeans to skinnies, I would love to see it so please comment below.

Live joy.