Everyone and their mother is making jeans these days. The Ginger jeans from Closet Case files has become the Mt. Fuji of sewing patterns — all the seamstresses wanna reach the summit. And, I am here to tell you I would love a pair, but have NO PLANS to make any….not when I can alter the jeans in my closet to fit like I made them myself.
The pair of high rise bootcut jeans I bought at the end of my maternity leave (to ease me back into real waistbands) was starting to feel frumpy. I’m not sure if my taste in jeans has changed or if my eye for fit has sharpened (probably both), because I couldn’t stand all of the fabric below the knee and wished it fit more snugly in the hips. So, I took a pair of slim fitting, tapered jeans I bought more recently and used them as a model to alter my disappointing bootcut ones into a fit somewhere between the two.
I basted the outer seams and inseams to test-fit and try on the reduction. The final seam was sewn with my machine while my overlocker took care of cutting off the original seam allowance while finishing the new one. I even dug out my jean-a-ma-jig to sew over the bulky, top-stitched crotch seam.
I did this on a whim, so there’s no before photo, but here are professional models wearing the same pairs of Levis involved in my experiment.
What is thoroughly rocking my world is how the back is fitting now! No gap at center back and a nice, close fit around the hips, leveraging the stretch in the denim.
After getting the fit in the thighs the way I wanted, I realized the back waistband needed to be taking in by a couple of inches (I always wore the original jeans with a belt to workaround the issue), but there was no center back seam on the waistband. The simplest thing I could think of was to add elastic. I sewed on a casing the width of the waistband, inserted 3/4″ elastic, and secured one end of the elastic by catching it as the short end of the casing was stitched. I put on the jeans, stretched the elastic until it hugged tight, and safety pinned the position until I could sew it in place with the other side of the casing.
The only dumbass move I made was sewing through the belt loops to attach the casing. The day I decide to wear these jeans with a belt again (not that I have to anymore), I’ll unpick those stitches and hand stitch the correction, but for now, the goof stays. A small price to pay for jeans that don’t give you plumber’s crack.
I have a small stash of maybe I’ll alter these one day jeans in a bin tucked away somewhere. I will find it and make this happen to each one.
Have you had success with refashioning or altering ready-to wear? Got any tips now that I’m hooked?
Wanna Be Sewing Something 
Corrrrr Najah, these look great, what a booty babe! I just bought a men’s tuxedo shirt, white size 46″ for $35AUD which is really super cheap here. The brand iOS a good one too. I’m going to cut it up a bit (not much, can’t be bothered) and make it fit me as a tunic/dress or something. Can’t wait to show you the results. Oh and I haven’t forgotten about the grid tutorial – soon 😉
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Thanks! My booty thanks you too. I’m really intrigued with your tuxedo shirt refashion plans. I love masculine styles on curves.
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No tips since I’ve never been successful refashioning anything important, but your jeans look great! And since you look like my booty twin, I think I’m going to have to try your tip next time I buy jeans. 😊
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Booty Twins!! I love having one! Hope I have more because my booty is a pain in the butt to fit. Glad you found the no-gap tip useful. Thanks for the note.
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Great fitting – customizing your own existing jeans is faster, cheaper and less headache than trying to make a pair from scratch.
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Thanks. You’re so right…jeans from scratch are gonna sit on my bucket list for a while, I think. So much work for a garment that will never make me feel as awesome as a custom fit dress.
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This post is a perfect example of why I read blogs! But now my pile of unflattering, crappy fitting jeans is languishing happily in a box waiting to be turned I to a bath at or something. Do they stay there? Hmmmmm. (The fact that that pile contains 2, count’em, 2 pairs I made myself a few years ago is making me put my 😦 on again.
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A denim bathtub!? Ha! No need for all that though, Alison. Try out this elasticated back trick on one of the jeans in your pile. Treat them like muslins and see if you can save any from becoming a bathroom fixture. I’m gonna do the same with my pile. First, I gotta find it…I hid it from myself into oblivion.
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Bath mat! Hah. My biggest issue is that I’m short waisted in the front though, but not having a gappy back will be fab.
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Doh! Now, a bathmat is a reasonable plan B refashion. Sorry, don’t have any ideas for reducing front length in RTW…I usually buy petite which solves that for me. But, I did get some front waist length reduction when I took in the crotch/inseam.
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Yeah, I could try to reduce it from the crotch.
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My eyes just about bugged out of my head when I read that about putting elastic in the waistband. You are a genius! It’s so obvious now you’ve said it but I NEVER would have thought of it. I have a few rtw jeans where I really love the fit, except for the gapey back. But if I buy one where the back doesn’t gape, it cuts my in half at the front. I am DEFINITELY doing this trick.
I haven’t had great successes at refashioning. I feel like I am just now working out how my body works + how to tweak clothing, so maybe I could start now! Before this I’ve only ever taken things in or patched holes, really.
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Hi five, girl! I appreciate your enthusiasm for this discovery. I too was like NO WAY THIS ACTUALLY WORKED, WTF! about the whole thing and now I feel like schmuck for not doing it earlier. My refashioning mojo has been activated now and I see potential in a lot of the ill-fitting garments in the maybe pile from my February closet clean out.
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No tips but there are a few bloggers that blog a lot about refashioning. By the way am featuring one of your projects tomorrow. The post was closed for further comments, so here I am. Thanks for permitting.
https://facebook.com/sassysewingbees ❀
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