I have been on the hunt for a Stacy and Clinton approved pair of jeans since forever. With my body shape and height (pear shaped and stumpy), the search for jeans has been difficult, to say the least.
My mission has been to find a pair of jeans that:
1) Are one color of denim, preferably a dark wash.
2) Create a sleek line from my hips all the way to my ankles
3) Fit my hips AND my waist
4) Are not too long
5) Do not have any ornamentation on the pockets or pockets with flaps.
Evil roadblocks I encounter over and over:
1) The jeans are a dark wash, except on the thighs. Thanks, but my thighs don’t need any extra attention drawn to them.
2) Most jeans are not wide enough all the way to my ankle, thus creating a “wow, she has really fat thighs” look. Flare jeans and/or skinny jeans = EVIL.
3) They fit over my hips but leave a giant gaping space at my waist.
4) MOST jeans are too long, even those that say “short” or those found in petites.
5) Rhinestones or buttons or silver designs adorn the pockets and scream “MY ASS IS TRYING TO LOOK LIKE A 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL!”
So imagine my dilemma when I walked into J. Crew the other day and found an almost perfect pair of jeans. They met 3 out of my 5 criteria, but unfortunately were too big in the waist and were too long. I could hear Stacy and Clinton whispering in my ear that I could always have the jeans altered to fit. Since the jeans were $98, I knew I couldn’t afford to have someone else alter them. In a move very unlike me, I decided to buy those $98 jeans and {gulp} attempt to alter them myself.
I’m not a professional seamstress by any stretch of the imagination. I figured hemming the jeans would be EASY, it would be the waist alteration that would be tricky. I googled and brainstormed and read sewing forums and came up with a plan to alter the waist. This is what I did…
Here’s what you’ll need:
1. Heavy thread. Regular thread won’t work because it’s not strong enough for denim. I chose blue thread to match the jeans, but I could have chosen a color to match the orange-ish stitching on the jeans.
2. Denim iron-on patches. Interfacing might have worked, but I wanted something little stronger.
3. Xanax. Did I mention the jeans cost my $98?
Before cutting on those $98 jeans, I practiced on an old pair of jeans that no longer fit. I’m glad I took the time to practice because I made a few mistakes.
1. The first “V” cut that I made was way too big, the “V” should have been much skinnier.
2. I didn’t properly attach each side of the “V” to the denim patch and it left a gap at the top.
After practicing, I got to work on the $98 J. Crew jeans. {Big deep breath}
First, I placed a pin at an angle alongside the two back, side belt loops. I measured to be sure they were both about the same distance from the belt loop.
Then I cut two skinny “V”‘s into the waistband, along the angle of the pin. Carefully, I attached the denim patch to the inner side of the waistband, making sure that the sides of the “V”‘s were lined up properly and touching along their edges. Next, I ironed the patch onto the jeans.
With my sewing machine on a zig-zag setting and the stitch length set to 1 mm, I sewed the two edges of the “V” together. I suppose this could have been hand stitched, but it would take a long time.
I tried the jeans on and realized that they still needed to be taken in a bit more.
I decided to remove the upper seam of the center, back belt loop and cut another skinny “V” into the waistband, following the same procedure as explained above. After sewing the “V” together, I then hand stitched the upper seam of the belt loop back to the waistband.
Originally I didn’t want to remove the belt loops because I was afraid they’d be difficult to reattach, but I wish I had done all three alterations under the belt loops so that the alteration wouldn’t be seen.
I’m really happy with the results, even though my handiwork wasn’t perfect! Since I NEVER tuck shirts into the waistband of my pants, nobody will ever see the alterations.
