How to Make Skinny Jeans

This just might be the easiest thing you EVER do! Let's start. So I have a pair of skinny jeans, so I really just copied them. But if you don't, then simply put on the jeans that you are going to convert, pinch to the tightness that you want around your ankle (you'll want a little give so you can get them on and off), and measure how far in that is from the outside edge of your pants.

Turn your pants inside out.

I laid my pants stack style. If you don't have skinny jeans to copy, measure in from the outside edge the same distance you just pinched while wearing the jeans. And mark.

Now you can do a couple different things. You could pin your pants together (if copying) and then sew. This would actually be hard to do with all the fabric layers involved. So I would say skip all pinning! See, I just cut 5 minutes off this project. Instead, use a permanent marker and under the edge of your top pants, draw a line on the ones to alter. You want them to match without bagginess.

If you're freehanding this, start at the bottom where you marked your line and draw with your marker up to just under crotch level. Look at the picture above to get a feel for the right angle of the line.
Next, do NOT cut off the excess pants yet. Sew on your marker line. You can see that I made one line, sewed, tried on, didn't fit quite the way I wanted, and so I went back to do it again. It worked the second time.
Once you have the line you want, leave at least 1/4 inch seam and cut off the rest that you don't need.
My pants were short to begin with, skinnys are much better than high-water boot cuts, so I didn't need to hem the bottom of them. However, that will not always be the case. Depending on the look you're going for, you could just do a fold under once and hem, a fold under twice and hem (you'll probably need a stronger needle for this one), or you could leave the edge raw and cuff them up twice. All cute options.
I'm feeling very confident in my clothes altering techniques. As Stacy and Clinton tell us, we buy the clothes and make them fit us. Hemming is okay! People always took something in to be hemmed or trimmed or fixed or whatever. Now, if the clothes don't fit in the dressing room, we hang it on the "no" hook. Hmmm...this offers a whole new outlook on the shopping experience. If it needs a tuck her or a dart removed there is it doable? Then it's worth it.