How to Sew Old Jeans into Skinny Jeans

Just because skinny jeans are popular right now doesn't mean you need to go out and buy all new jeans. You can recycle your old flare and wide leg jeans into skinny jeans, saving you both money and also the hassle of finding a pair that fit your body type.

To turn your jeans into skinny jeans make sure you have an old pair that fit you well, a sewing machine with a heavy duty needle, pins and a marker.

First put your jeans on inside out. With your marker, draw a line starting around your knee and down to the hem. This will make your jeans straight leg. Take off the jeans and pin both sides of the legs together along the line you just drew. Now, sew along the line and try the jeans on again. Make sure you don't cut anything until you retry them on.

It's best to make the jeans a little wider than you think you are going to want. Then when you try them on if they are too wide you can simply draw another line, pin and sew again. Repeat this until the jeans are as skinny as you would like. It's easier to keep sewing the jeans tighter than to have to rip out all your stitches and make them bigger.

There might be some bunching of fabric around the knee. If there is too much just turn them inside out again and this time draw a line from your thigh down. Pin and resew this to meet the seam you have already made.

It might take a few tries to get the jeans to fit just right so be patient.

If your jeans are also too long this is a good time to also hem them.

Once you have the leg the width that you want turn them back inside out and cut off the excess material, being careful not to cut too close to the seam.

To do the other leg of the jeans you can fold over the leg that you just completed and carefully trace it to make sure both legs are symmetrical, and to save yourself from having to keep trying them on and altering them over and over.

Now that you have a pair of skinny jeans that fit you perfectly, you can use them to make more pairs. Simply lay them on top of another pair of jeans and trace the legs.