Make some Hippie Jeans - Tutorial

This will be the extent of my Halloween costume sewing this year. Dd wants to be a hippie, so we bought a faux leather vest, some granny glasses and a peace sign purse at the costume shop. I am using an old pair of jeans to make into some hippie bell bottoms.

These are a pair of Limited Too jeans that I've always hated because the fly cover doesn't lie flat and it always looks like her zipper is undone. Good item to use for a costume.

Cut along both inseam and outseam up to the knee. It was easy to see the knee on these because she's worn them for at least two years.

Trim seam allowances. Please do this. If you don't, then the sewing will be a nightmare and you'll break a needle. Ask me how I know.

Choose fabric. This yardage sort of looks like the print used as trim on her vest. I wanted to use the pink strip, so I cut that section out. It was about 10 inches wide and that determined the width of my triangles to cut. I measured from the top of my cut outseams and inseams to the hem of the jeans and got 14 inches, so I added one inch to that measurement. My rectangles were about 10 X 15. I halved them lengthways and cut a mark in the center to find the center of the triangle.

The cut triangles. The grain goes straight across.

Use a jeans needle.

Sew in the triangles. The important thing here is to make sure you sew both sides from the same direction. Top to bottom (even though it's against the grain) is easy because you can lop off excess fabric when you finish if one side grows on you during the sewing.

Clip out jeans seam allowances at the top of the triangle. This will save you heartbreak and broken needles and allow you go get a neater look when you sew the second seam. Make sure to pull your print fabric seam allowance back out of the way and start sewing right on the jeans seam line when you begin.

The finished triangle. Use a rotary cutter to trim off excess fabric into a smooth curve. I added a 1/4" seam allowance so I could serge and hem the edge.

Press the serging under.

Topstitch the hem.

Done! Groovy. . .