Girls Skinny Jeans

Although I learned how to sew at a young age, and sewed all through my youth. My mom having her own children's clothing company helped influence that. I never made myself pants, I never made any pants. I was scared by them. Shortly after my son was born I bought my fist child's pattern it was a regular store pattern for a basic t-shirt and sweat pants. I kind of fell in love. Who knew pants were so easy, they are really just two sleeves sewn together. When my daughter was born in 2009 that is when I fully embraced the idea of sewing for little ones, there were only a few items I was afraid to try. Jeans were one of them. Making a basic pant was pretty easy but jeans... with the pockets and the fit... that was another story. However this is a year of trying new things, so I started with a pair of basic skinny jeans, skinny since the beloved pair I was copying were skinny jeans, and basic because they don't have a fly or button closure... I started small, but little ones don't need a button or fly so I thought it was a fine place to start. The same tutorial can be used for boys or girls, the fit will depend on the pants you use as your pattern.

Let's start with the pattern. I am using a pair of jeans that were my favorite for my little girl but they were getting too short, and they had holes in the knees, the fit everywhere else was fine,so they were a good choice.
For the front piece fold your jeans (while inside out) so that the front of the leg is showing. Smooth out the seam so it is all exposed and trace around. I added length at the bottom. When you get to the top be sure to trace below the waist band.
For the back do the same only be sure that the back of the pant is showing. 

You will notice a few things. The back has more of a slope and point, that is what gives more room in the rear. Next you will also want to draw your waist band piece. Draw it just above your pant pieces. It should be twice the height you want the band to be since it will be folded. 

Now the cutting out. I used an old pair of jeans from my donation pile to make these. Mainly because I liked the color, they had a little stretch and I liked the back pockets which I would cut off and reuse. You could also buy denim. I lined the bottom of my pattern up with the bottom of the pants so I could use the pant hem. As you can see I barely had enough room, but still enough... I cut all of my pieces out of the jeans.

Now lets make some front pockets shall we? They are really pretty easy to do.
First grab your front piece and along the straight side cut your pocket shape. However deep or large as you want really.

Then follow these steps:
1. Take the cut out piece and cut out another 2 pieces that is larger along the curved side.
2. Take a thin piece of fabric (cotton works best) to be your pocket lining, fold the fabric in half and with the fold on the bottom make a rectangle that is as deep as you want your pockets to be. It should line up with the big pocket piece on the side and top. (cut two rectangles.)
3. Unfold the rectangle and cut in the curve of the larger pocket piece.
4. Then fold the piece back up and cut in the fold of the smaller pocket piece (the original cut out)
Now you have your pocket pieces ready to go. Keep one of the smaller cut out pieces and then you should have two larger pocket pieces and two pocket lining pieces.

Sew one front and one back leg right sides together along the curved edge. From the crotch down the leg.

Lay that seam flat and double stitch a top stitch. (like all jeans have) If you have a double needle go for it, I don't so I just stitched one line and then followed that line to stitch a second, as you can see it got a little curvy...

Next sew up the other side of the leg.
You can do these steps with both legs.

Next let's make the mini pocket.
1.Take that small cut out piece and turn under the top edge and stitch it in place.
2. Fold under the edges and pin it to the larger pocket piece matching up the curved edge. Sew in place. 

1. Take the pocket lining and match up the larger curve with the pocket piece curve. (it will feel a little off when you are matching up the curves.
2. When you sew that in place you should have something that looks like the picture #2.
3. Fold up the rectangle and sew up the sides.

Now this can be a little tricky, so hopefully the picture makes it clear.
on the right side of the pants you are going to match up the curve of the rectangle with the curve cut in the pants. you want the wrong side of the jean on the pocket to be facing inward. Sew along that line. Then flip the pocket to the inside of the pant and you can topstitch along the curve of the pocket. (the line you just sewed) 

Next with your pocket flipped on the inside of the pants. lay it all flat and finish sewing the front leg to the back leg, along the pocket.

Next, I had cut out the back pockets from the pants I used and just made it an appropriate size for the smaller pants. I turned under the top edge, and then folded all the edges under and sewed them in place on the read of the pant.

Next with right sides together which means one pant leg will be inside out and one will not put the one that is not inside the one that is inside out, and sew along the "u" shape, connecting the two pieces.

You should have something that looks like pants at this point. Now I topstitched the seam we just sewed, since most jeans have that topstitched, but it was a little tricky to maneuver and not necessary if you would rather skip it. 

Next we will do the waist band and then be done!
1. Sew the wait band front and back pieces together at the side seam. Then sew them to the pants.
2. Turn under the top edge and sew it in place.
3. Fold the wast band inward and sew in place only along the back. (creating an elastic casing)
4. Slide in the elastic and sew it in place at both side seams. Then sew the wait band in place along the front and you are done.
Not to bad right?

Now your little one has some stylish new jeans to wear around.

And since they were made from old jeans she was run around and be wild since she is not destroying a pair of 30 dollar jeans.

She only looks like she is :)

Enjoy!