I love shoes!
Flats. Wedges. Heels. Pumps. Sandals. Boots.
I love them all!
Let your footwear take center stage by refashioning some of your bootcut jeans into skinnies. Believe me, your shoes will thank you.
First, cut the jeans to your desired length. (If you’d like to keep the original hem, check out this tutorial on hemming jeans)
Put your jeans on inside out and pin the new seams.
Sew along your pin lines and hem. Easy as 1,2,3!
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The Renegade Seamstress 
Perfect timing! I need to do this on several pairs of unfortunate boot cut!
Your shoes will love you!
I love this idea. I always enjoy your posted, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for visiting!!!
Great job!
Thanks, Kelli!
I love the boot cut look on me since I’m chubby, but this is great for some of those older pairs of boot cuts that I may want to alter.
I’m usually a bootcut kind of gal myself, but it is fun to have a few pairs of skinnies around to show off the cute shoes. I wear long shirts with mine to cover up my backside. 😉
Off to the sewing machine!
🙂
I have got out of the habit of wearing jeans. Used to wear them day in day out. But this tute is worth scouring the charity shops for an unfortunate pair of flares! Thanks, Beth 🙂
I’ve been wearing more dresses than jeans lately myself. But I do like the way these show off my shoes. Thanks for your comments. I always look forward to what you have to say!
Beth
More nice shoes!
I do have a weakness for shoes!
Such a cleaner, more sophisticated look. Thanks for sharing!
~Louise
You are so welcome!
Great idea! I going to give this a try
Super easy!!! Have fun!
I’m going to try this on a pair of dress slacks that are too short for me…. make me a pair of “ankle trousers” – very in right now and this will be so easy! Beth, I love your posts. Even though I’ve never been a fan of sewing, you make me want to get out my old sewing machine!! Thanks! 🙂
Oh Lori, I hope you get that old machine out. It’s so much fun!!!
This is awesome. I am doing this tomorrow!
Thanks, it just takes a few minutes and you can show off all your cute shoes. 🙂
Beth
Fantastic tutorials. Do you mind me asking if you need an overlocker to carry out these alterations? Thanks! 🙂
You could use one, but I’m not fortunate enough to own an overlocker so I just use my regular machine.
Question: how did you take of you jeans once pinned to fit ‘skinny’?
Hi Jane,
Good question. If you put your pins in parallel to your legs, your jeans should come right off.
Happy sewing!
Beth
I need to do this to several pairs of my jeans.
My only question: Do you just sew along your pins, and leave the extra material there? Do the “flappies” bother your legs? Weird question I know, but I’m just wondering if it’s noticeable while wearing the pants.
Hi Amanda,
Just trim the extra away, leaving a half an inch seam allowance. No more “flappies” 🙂
Beth
Loved reading through your tutorials. One question on this one: I really like the heavier looking hem on the inside of my jeans. They’re boot cut to begin with so there’s not a TON of material I’m getting rid of and I was wondering if it would mess things up to maintain that original inside seam and just pin the one side (it creates somewhat less of a straight line down that side). I’m too much of a newbie with sewing to be able to foresee potential problems with that method.
Any thoughts? Thanks!
Hi Amy,
I think it might twist and be a little wonky. But if you have an old pair that you don’t care about, I’d try it on those first and experiment.
Good luck!
Beth
I just stumbled across your site today and I live it!! I did this for a few ladies last summer at work 🙂 It’s really easy 🙂
Welcome to the Renegade Seamstress, Joy!!!
I just read through your instructions and though I have not tried it with jeans, but my dress pants turned out perfectly skinny…but I’m always looking for shortcuts so I only sewed on the outside of the leg and there was no twisting of the fabric. Happy sewing
I’m so glad it worked for you!!!
I tried this and pinned one side, the outside, and then pinned and ditched but ended up with a sort of pocket where the new seam meets the old since the fabric got turned inside. How do I fix this? I pinned and hand see (no machine available) and then tried them on and got a little pocket thing which doesn’t look good. Any ideas? I feel like I did as the directions said.
Any help would be great,
Jessi
Sorry for the typos.
Hi Jessi,
I wonder of you pinned both the inside and the outside so it would be a more gradual seam. I also made the seam as gradual as possible to meet the existing seam. Let me know if this helps.
Beth
Can this work if I do not need to take off any length? I have a pair of boot cut that shrank but would be the perfect length for some skinny jeans.
Yes, you might have to cut some of the side hem seam if it gets to bulky for you.
Hi Beth! I have been a fan of yours for some time now! I’m on your email list and love it when those come in! I took part in your refashion Webinar & got a bit more confident. I LOVE what you’ve done to clothes and I too want to do that. So, with the jeans – how did you hem the ones you cut off? 1 fold or two? I watched your other hem without cutting the bottom off ~ that was very useful to me as well. Jean hems are not the easiest to sew so if you can offer some suggestions on the bottom hem, I’d be ever grateful! Thanks!
I have a pair of jeans and a pair of lined white dressy pants I’ve been wanting to make into ‘skinnies’ but I was afraid. You detailed what I thought would work so now I feel way more confident and plan to do this. I was glad to hear the comments on seaming one side as opposed to both sides. I had thought of that approach too … now I think I’ll play it safe and go with two. Love your site. 🙂 I will be back!!
I am so happy I found this! I now have a large pile of jeans waiting to go from straight and flare (yes, flare) to bootcut and skinny jeans!!
I have just thrown away a pair of dress pants that are too big for me now. I think I can make them into ankle pants with this since they do not have pockets. Anyway, I am going to grab them out of the trash! Thanks!
Question: I am a relatively new seamstress in training, can I do this on polyester pants with a regular sewing machine and not a serger?
Yes, but you might want to finish the edges with one of these techniques: http://www.ehow.com/ehow-crafts/blog/6-easy-ways-to-finish-a-seam-without-a-serger/
Hello. First, love all of your creations and I can honestly say you have inspired me to try sewing and definitely recreating and altering my own wardrobe. I am wondering, any tips on how I can pin the jeans myself?
Thank you so much Gracie! You’ve definitely brightened my day! I’ve tried to think of a good way to pin all by yourself and the only thing I can think of is to put them on inside out reach down and look in the mirror and pinch it together wear you want it to be and use safety pins or draw a line. Take them off and finish with the safety pins. Put them back on again and check to see if they fit. You might have to do this a time or two but the results are totally worth it.