How to narrow jeans at the bottom without ruining them: step-by-step instructions

Skinny jeans are a popular trouser model. Therefore, many girls set out to narrow their jeans downwards. Fortunately, this is quite easy to do yourself. It’s enough to arm yourself with tailor’s pins and take your time.

Is it easy to taper jeans?

Sewing trousers is a technologically complex process in the sense that the slightest mistake can cause the trouser legs to become skewed. If you pick up the fabric in the wrong place, or do it incorrectly, the jeans will no longer fit. They will begin to puff up, press, and interfere with movement. It is especially dangerous for novice seamstresses to touch the middle and inner seam in the crotch area. The area from the knee to the ankle is not so capricious.

Pants legs can be narrowed at the bottom at home with minimal skills and knowledge. The main thing is to consistently follow all the steps of the instructions.

What result can you get:

How to make skinny jeans from wide jeans - step-by-step instructions

The first step is to prepare the materials.

You will need:

• special threads for denim (for thin jeans – No. 50–60, for thick jeans – No. 30–40);
• needle No. 100;
• scissors;
• a set of tailor's pins;
• ruler;
• chalk or piece of soap.

Regular sewing threads will not work.They will quickly tear, and all the work will be in vain. The color of the threads must be matched either to the tone of the fabric or to the threads with which the product is stitched.

Marking the unnecessary

Before cutting your jeans, you need to decide where and what to remove. It would be correct to sew the trouser legs on both sides, that is, take the fabric from both the inside seam and the side seam. This way the pants won't get skewed. In rare cases, jeans are tapered only along the side seam (when up to 2 cm of fabric is removed).

How to correctly mark the desired width:

1. Turn the jeans inside out and put them on.
2. Grab the fabric with your fingers and pin it in places where you need to sew it.
3. Carefully remove your pants.
4. Using a ruler and a sharp bar of soap, draw a line along the pins. Make sure that the transition from the factory seam is smooth.
5. Add 0.5-1 cm and draw another line. The jeans will shrink. In addition, the reserve is necessary so that the trousers are comfortable to take off and put on.

Another way to measure the excess is to place old skinny jeans on the jeans that need to be tapered and trace them with chalk. However, it is less accurate. All pants fit differently, some stretch less, others stretch more. In any case, it is recommended to try on the altered product before cutting anything off.

Basting and trying on

Many people skip the next stage - and make a huge mistake. As they say, measure twice, cut once. If you want your jeans to fit perfectly, first baste them along the second line and try them on. Walk around in them, try to sit down, bend over. If you are comfortable and comfortable, move on to the next step. If not, adjust the basted seam.

Cut and stitch

According to the rules, when sewing trousers, the entire seam is ripped out. But for beginners it’s better not to take risks.

Do the following:

1. Leave 0.5 cm from the factory seam and 1 cm from the basted stitch.
2. Trim off excess fabric.
3. Sew, going over the factory seam. Sew the bottom of the jeans all the way to the hem.
4. Use a serger or zigzag stitch to reinforce the seam.

Topstitching

Typically, denim trousers have stitching - a decorative seam on the front side of the product. When you decide to taper your jeans, it is usually cut off. To return the product to a neat appearance, you need to re-stitch. To do this, threads are selected to match the existing color, and the jeans are stitched at the bottom of the front side in two straight lines.

If you don't have a sewing machine

You can narrow your jeans without a sewing machine. In this case, you will have to work with your own hands. To imitate a machine seam, I use a hand stitch “back needle”. You need to get used to it and make the stitches even and the same length.

How to alter jeans without need

There are many simplified instructions on the Internet that advise you to quickly make wide jeans narrow. An illustrative example:

It is worth warning that this method does not work. By removing excess fabric from only one side, you are guaranteed to end up with twisted jeans. In addition, if your trousers are generally too big, you need to narrow them in several places, and according to certain rules. If the difference is more than 2 sizes, the trousers are completely recut. It is better to entrust major alterations to specialists.

So, it’s not difficult to turn wide jeans into skinny ones if you only need to redo the bottom part. To do this, the width is reduced at both seams. On average, the work takes from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Using step-by-step instructions, you will get exactly the result you expected!