how to alter flare/bootcut jeans to skinny legs?

Yes, and equal amount should be removed from both the inside and outside seam. Otherwise the pantslegs will twist when worn.

Determine how much you want to remove and divide by 2. Start at the hem (which you have unpicked), and draw a chalkline, using a yardstick, up to about the knee, or wherever the line naturally intersects the original stitching. You will need to clean finish (serge or zig-zag) the raw edges of the new seam. Be sure you don't taper so much that she cannot get her foot through the new hem. Re-stitch the hem when you are happy with the alteration.

HTH,

Beverly

S/B "...an equal amount..."

This brings to mind the craze in the early 1960s for very narrow (14 inch) bottom trousers. At that time I was in the RAF, in my late teens,

6 ft 4 ins tall and weighed less than 160 pounds. Narrow bottomed trousers were that last thing that I really needed but they were "fashionable"...

To do this, you'll fold the jeans legs in half, matching side seam to inseam. The front and back "crease" is the grain line. Mark it from hem to crotch level, front and back.

Next, fold the hem up to crotch level... the new fold you've made is the nominal knee line. Mark that, too, on both legs.

Rule #1: Grainlines need to be centered on the leg, both front and back. (if they aren't, you wind up with the leg twisting while you walk -- even if they're skin tight). The grainline should be perpendicular to the floor.

Rule #2: Above the knee line, you can take out of the inseam or the outseam as long as the grainline remains centered on the leg.

Rule #3: Below the knee line, you MUST take the same amount out of inseam and outseam. This keeps one of the major balances of the pants.

Rule #4: You must take out the same amounts from front and back. This also keeps the leg balanced, but this time it's a hemline balance... you've got more muscle in the back of your leg than the front.

So the answer to your question is that you'll wind up opening the seams as far up as you need to to start the taper. Above the knee, you're just fitting the pants... just keep the grainline straight and take the same amount of fabric from front and back. From the knee to the hem, you take the same amount of fabric from the front and the back AND equal amounts from inseam and outseam.

Exactly where this alteration starts will depend on the shaping of the jeans legging.

Kay, who drafts a lot of pants patterns and would sooner make a new pair from scratch than go through all that with commercial jeans.

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Amen!!!

Beverly, who does occasionally *shorten* RTW jeans for my DD but she better duck if she wants them pegged!

I has visions of airfoce blue daddy longlegs... ;)

Thanks to every one for all their ideas! I'd probably would have just bought her couple more pairs of jeans but the flare ones she has have only been worn a couple times and with DD being a short size 0 junior...this will be easier on my wallet!

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