What Would Robin Wear

I love to shop and I love a sale. Recently I bought 5 pairs of Calvin Klein jeans at the cleance sale at Macy's. Now I know-5 pairs of jeans??? But they were 11 dollars and a couple pairs were 23 dollars. These are 80 dollar jeans normally. I knew I would alter them to fit me. Boot cut to straight legs, and alter the waist to fit as listed in my pervious blogs, but I also wanted to make a couple pairs of capris for spring. Sometimes I will buy pants on clearance or even in petite's and cut them into capri pants or even shorts. It is cheaper than buying capri pants. I mean where can you get a pair of Calvin Klein capri pants for 11 bucks??

First I put the jeans on and decide how long I want them. I like mine to hit right below the knee, or a little longer so I can wear them to work.




Next I lay them out on the table and cut off the leg where I previously marked it.






I lay the cut leg on top of the other leg to measure and then cut it off.

























Next I zig zag the the the unfinished hem so it doesn't fray.


























Now I am ready to hem. I usually do a 1 inch hem, so I measure and pin both legs.








I match up the legs to make sure they are the same length.






And I am done.

For a woman finding a pair of jeans that fit is almost impossible. Especially if you have a curvy body. I am talking a smaller waist, bigger hips and well, junk in your trunk. What usually happens for me is that I can get them to fit everywhere but in the waist. I hate when my jeans gap in the waist at the back. I swear I could fit a pillow down there. If you have a smaller waist like I do, this is a huge problem for you, specifically when it comes to jeans. I have the hardest problem finding jeans that fit, not only in length but more importantly in the waist. So I find jeans that primarily fit in the hips, rear, thighs, and are long enough for my 5'9 frame. So to fix the gap at the back of your jeans, there is a simple fix and I will show you how to do this.

First lay your jeans out flat on the table and look at the waist.




Now turn them inside out and match the middle belt loop in the seam of the seat to the belt loop on the right.



Pin the belt loops together so they don't slip around. Now I know that my waist is about three inches too big. I know because if you pull the waist tight on the side when you try them on you can figure out how much excess is there. It is usually about three inches for me. So, I am going to place my dart in the back of the waist about 1 and 1/2 inches on each side for a total of three inches. So I measure and then mark with my marker where I need to begin my dart.



Lay the ruler from the top of waist band which is 1 1/2 inches in and place it diagonally to the top of the pocket seam on the jeans. It needs to taper slowly otherwise it will pucker. See photo...






You are ready to sew. Make sure you use a couple pins so the seams remain straight and flush. Sew a straight line. Do the other side of the belt loops the same way.
Cut away the excess fabric and zig zag stitch the cut seam so it doesn't fray.



When you are finished your new tappered waist should look like the photo below.



And the finished waist should look like the photo below.



And finally a closeup of me with no gapping and when I sit my underwear not showing, is just priceless.

Straight legs are in so I am always flabergasted when I can never find anything but boot cut jeans. I don't live in Texas and do not wear big ole cowboy boots so I find boot cut jeans just do not fit my style and I don't like all that fabric flappin around when I walk. Sometimes they are so flaired I feel like Shaggy from Scooby Doo. So I make sure that my jeans fit in the hips, thighs, and are long enough, then I taper them to straight cut jeans. Not super straight from the 1980's but just straight with no flair.

Here is a photo of the before flaired Calvin Klein boot cut jeans.




The first thing I do is lay my jeans flat inside out. I make sure the seam I am about to taper is on the inside seam and the seams match up and are straight. I measure across usually about three inches in from the inside seam.

I mark three inches in with a marker. And pin where my three inch taper begins.



To taper the boot cut jeans to straight legs, you lay a ruler diagonally to just below where you knee is at the inseam. (See Photo)Then mark the line with your marker.





















Do both legs the same way.




I am now ready to sew. I follow my line on the sewing machine with a straight stich. I then try them on inside out to make sure they are not too tight.



If they are a good fit, I cut the excess material off.





Next you need to finish the edge that you just cut so that it doesn't fray and unravel. I use a zig zag stitch.






And wha-la straight leg jeans.