I simply could not believe my luck when I found these jeans in exactly my size at the $1-a-pound Goodwill Clearance Center!

There was just one problem, I don’t want a pair of flared jeans, whereas I really could use a pair of skinny jeans. The one pair I had was on its last legs (har har), and was never made of good quality denim to begin with.
This pair I scored for about $1, however was made of nice, thick denim with exactly the wash I had been wanting.
It didn’t take me very long before I figured out what I needed to do here.
Let’s refashion those flared jeans into skinny jeans!
I turned the flares inside out, then laid my skinny jeans over them, like so:

Next, I pinned along the edge of the skinny jeans.

Then, I stitched the pinned line down.

Denim is fairly fray-cray, so I serged the edge down as well.
If you don’t have a serger, a zigzag stitch and some fray-check will work just fine.

Because I’m on the short side, I also needed to give my sweet new jeans two sweet new hems.
To do this, I pinned them where I wanted them to fall, and then pressed the pinned part under.

Then, I folded the top bit under and pinned it, like this:

After following this same step with the other leg, under the needle they went!

I pressed the new hems, as well as my new side seams.
And now I have a pair of jeans that fits better than any I’ve ever had!

I paired them with a fabulous drapey $1 thrifted tee I scored that week and a vintage necklace I’ve had forever.
And check out the fabulous back pockets!

My new jeans got tons of compliments at a pie-themed dinner party with some of my favorites. 🙂




Jeans are pricey (unless you score them for $1 a pound!), so why not look at your current stash and see if you have any old flares you don’t wear anymore that could use an upcycle, rather than going out and buying a new pair?

Cheers!