How to turn jeans into bell bottoms. Upcycle an old pair of jeans into something a little more comfortable.
Bell buttoms… I have been less than secretly in love with them for a while. I decided to take a pair of my older beat up jeans and try to see if I could successfully convert them to bell bottoms. It ended up being a really easy project considering and pretty quick too. That makes me very happy so I might just be able to get a few pairs of thrift jeans and make a few more pairs.
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First I seam ripped up to where I wanted the jeans to begin to “bell”… I approximately where the knee would be and it ended up being 18” from bottom of pants. You only need to seam rip the outside of both legs. I also seam ripped the hem.
Once you measure how far up you ripped, you need to cut a piece of your fabric… in my case, the green with blue flowers. I folded a piece of fabric right sides together, measured 18″ length, marked the spot. Then I measured 5″ out from that spot and made a mark.
I connected the dot to the very top of my fabric and cut it out. Then I cut from the dot to the 18″ mark. Basically you’ve got a triangle and it unfolds into a bigger triangle.
To make the second cutout the exact same size, I just used the first as a guide.
Turning the jeans inside out, I matched the jean opening and the triangle right sides together and serged them together. Then I matched up the opposite side and did the same.
It was difficult to get the top of the triangle all sewn properly so to avoid any fraying or gaps, I sewed the top together with my sewing machine.
I could have re-hemmed the bottoms, but instead I used my serger to finish the edge. I had to do this very carefully along the seams of the jeans where it’s really thick, but it worked out okay and didn’t break any needles. I didn’t try to get them super even because I figured it’d add to the look to have it be a bit sloppy. And I’m lazy.
I topstitched the bell area as well.
Here’s my finished product! I love them!
Check out these other Secondhand Fashion Ideas!
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