{Sewing Tip Tuesday} #11

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Hi all! Today isn't so much a "tip" as it is a TUTORIAL!! YAY! Everyone loves a good tutorial right?

For some reason I did a REALLY bad job at photographing myself in the mirror. It must have been the cold I had last week...clouding my head. Forgive my bad pictures.

Alright, here we go....

Take a pair of jeans you want to cut up and turn them wrong side out. Lay them out on the floor. Take a pair of skinny's you like and lay them on top, wrong side out as well

Next pin along the edge of the top pair of jeans as a guideline for where you will sew.

Then sew about 3/8" in from that line of pins. Don't make your pants too skinny that they will cut your calves in half when you turn them into capris! Make sure you backstitch at the top. Don't worry about the bottom because you will be cutting it off anyway. I used a denim needle and jeans thread, but you don't have to. I did it to match the inside of my seams with what was already there. If your pants have dark thread, I would use dark thread.

Ok, so try on your pants to make sure your legs aren't too tight. If they fit well, cut off that extra flap. I used pinking shears to prevent too much fraying on the inside.

Now you need to decide how long (or short) you want them to be. I put my pants on, decided where I wanted them and then just stuck a pin in the front of my jeans about 2 inches lower than that.....on just one leg. Take them off. Line up your legs and cut them at the pin.

This next part is key to making them look professional, like you bought them from the store. See how the inside seam has the yellow stitching, then that light blue serged edge?

Well I don't have a serger, so I can't serge my edges. You have have one, but all means serge your edges. If you don't, follow these steps....

I set my machine on the #8 stitch. I don't know what it's called, but it did the job I wanted it to. Find one similar on your machine.

Then sew along the outside seam at the bottom 3 or so inches. I used a cornflower colored thread to match the other leg.

It doesn't look exactly like the other side, but it gives your jeans a little something extra to make it look nicer.

Now all you need to do is cuff them, iron them like CRAZY, and tack those edges down. If you need help with this, check out this tutorial on cuffing shorts.

And that's it!! Way to refashion those jeans you weren't going to wear anyway!!

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