Upcycled Jeans Tutorial

Two weeks ago I cleaned out my son's closet and found 10 pairs of jeans all fairly new, all busted at the knees. He loves to dance and show off his "cool moves" which are half break dance half kung fu. It never fails he busts his jeans at the knees. I was taught growing up that we do not waste anything that could be used by someone else, so it's really hard for me just to throw things away (especially pants that have only been worn a handful of times.) So I stacked all the jeans up on my sewing table and thought about what I would do with them. Then there I was in the grocery store check out line and I picked up People Style magazine only to see pages full of ripped up "Boyfriend" jeans. They are the hot style this season. The light went off in my head, I'll turn my little boys jeans into cute "Boyfriend" style girls jeans. I pulled out my fabric stach and picked out my favorite coordinating fabrics, cut out patches and went to town. I made around 7 pairs, each one different, and even went to the thrift store to see if I could find any other sizes. I found a couple of itty bitty baby jeans and a super cute short sleeve denim jacket. I have a few left to fix up, but I've placed a couple on Etsy already.

Wanna make your own?

Here's a short tutorial.

Materials:
Jeans (new or used)
thread
fabric (2- 3 prints 1/2 yard each)
embroidery thread
Ruler
scissors
sewing machine
Steam a Seam sticky back fusible web
E6000 glue
rhinestones

1. Cut out fabric patches and lay them out on your jeans.
2. Sew patches on inside of jeans to show through knee holes. Use sewing machine zigzag stitch if pant legs fit on sewing machine. Or hand sew knee patches.
3. Cut sticky back webbing to match your patches.
4. Iron on patches to jeans.
5. Hand sew decorative stitches around patches using embroidery thread.
6. Use E6000 glue to add rhinestones.
7. Cut 2 rectangles at least 10" wide and however long the leg opening of you pant is. (example the jeans shown were 10" x 14")
8. Fold in half so that both 10" ends match and sew seam.
9. Now fold band in half.
10. Turn pants inside out and pin band to pant hem.
11. Sew band to pants.
12. Turn right side out, and fold up cuff.

Now your little girl (or you) will have some super cute OOAK jeans. I'd love to see your creations, send them to me or comment with a link to your site.