Customizing second-hand jeans for a teen girl

The problems we encounter, when shopping the second-hand market for teen-girl clothes are these:
when she finds the item that fits, it's not the style she wants, and, when she finds the style she wants, it's not the right size. Getting everything just right entails a bit of creativity, and some sewing skills.


My two daughters wear jeans every day to work. Jeans and a university provided t-shirt make up the required uniform. They each just have 1 pair of jeans. Work entails being on hands and knees scrubbing floors, toilets, tubs, and carpets, among other duties. Which means jeans are taking a beating this summer!

Sunday afternoon, I took both of them to St. Vincent de Paul's weekly "Sunday -- all clothing 99 cents". For our immediate area, 99 cents for thrift shop clothing is a spectacular price. I know some areas have much better pricing. But this is what we have available.

Each daughter has their own style preferences. One wanted skinny jeans, the other wanted flare leg jeans. The skinny jeans were actually easy to find this week. But the flare legs were either too worn or too big.

The daughter wanting flare-legged jeans is very petite. Our usual problem fitting her is finding pants with a small enough waist. We shop both the children's and juniors, hoping to find something that works. Here's how it went:

daughter -- "I found the perfect jeans!!!"

mom -- "Oh, that's wonderful! Let's see how they look!"

daughter comes out of dressing room -- "see, they fit perfectly"

mom -- "um, not exactly. But we'll take care of that."

daughter -- "they are exactly what I was looking for, except I wanted flair legs."

mom -- "I think that I can come up with something you might like"

daughter -- "I was really hoping to find some dark jeans. Can you do something about that too?"

mom -- "we can fix that"

daughter -- "these are exactly what I was looking for!!"

What she found, that she liked a lot, were too big in the waist, too long, had boot-cut legs (not as big a flare as she likes), and were paler blue than she was hoping for. But other than that, these were just perfect! LOL!

Standing in the dressing room area, I showed her that the waist could be taken in with 2 darts in the waist band in back, and 2 darts in front, and I could do a quick trick on the side seam to get a bit of the look of a flare to the hem. And of course, we could toss them in the next dark denim dye bath (later this summer). And then, the jeans would be "exactly what she was looking for".

Jeans made of a lighter weight denim can usually be taken in with darts in the waist. Fashion jeans tend to be made of the lighter weight denim, and are often light-colored denim. A good method for seeing if the denim will be light-weight enough to add darts to the waist band, is to pinch the waist band, and see if you can get a slim fold between your fingers.

Heavier weight denim, such as waist bands on Levi's, generally can't be machine stitched with darts (on most home-machines), to reduce a waist. When you pinch a Levi's type jean in the waist band, the fabric is too stiff and thick to get a slim fold. My daughter did choose a lighter weight denim (whew!), so taking in the waist should be easy enough.

To add darts, on the inside of the waist band, I pinch the back in two places, on either side of the center back seam, and stitch darts in a straight stitch. I do the same in the front, just above the pockets. I have my daughter try them on. If the darts need making larger (to take them in more), I sew each dart about 1/8th inch from the previous stitching, which with 4 darts will take the pants in another 1 inch total.

When we've got the right size in the waist. I trim the fold off the dart and then overcast the edges with a zig-zag stitch to prevent fraying.

On jeans that I have taken in this way in the past, we've never had an issue with the darts coming apart in any way. They have held up to many, many washings, and literally years of wear. The darts will be invisible, under a belt, should she want to wear a tucked-in shirt.

After taking in the waist, it was time to have her try them on for length-fitting. Because the hem was so deep, I decided it would just be easier to hand hem them. My rule of thumb on whether to machine or hand hem jeans, is about 1 inch. If the turned up portion will be more than 1 inch, I hand hem. If less than 1 inch, I use the machine. Machine hemming a really deep hem requires cutting off, and turning under some of the fabric (otherwise the stitching looks too high on the outside). A hand hem is much less visible, and quick to do.

These jeans have a straight seam up the side. This would be the seam that I would re-stitch, on the inside, just an 8-inch portion from mid-knee to mid-calf, to get a flared look to the hem.

I had my daughter try on the jeans with the better fitting waist and right length, and marked where to taper the knee area (to get the look of a flared bottom hem). I turned the jeans inside out, and redid the side seam with a tapering addition to the seam.

The taper area is marked with pins.

Stitching began right at mid-knee area, on the side seam, coming in 3/4 of an inch, then tapering back to the seam, on each leg, for about 8 inches down the seam. It's not a true flare, more like an exaggerated boot cut. But it satisfied my daughter.

By the way, you can turn flare or boot cut jeans into straight leg or skinny jeans, by stitching new side or inseams. Most jeans have 1 seam that is lapped, and 1 seam that is just a straight seam. Do the tapering along the straight seam, hemming afterwards, if the hem needs taking up. As styles can change drastically from one season to the next, I've turned many pairs of flared pants into straight leg for myself.

As these were paler than she really wanted, I mentioned the dye bath I have planned for September -- dark denim blue. My own jeans, a denim jacket, a light blue tee-shirt that looks faded, these jeans, and a denim skirt will go into that dye.


I have to say, my daughter is immensely happy with her new jeans. Total cost was 99 cents. I did the alterations in bits of time. But my guess is I spent no more than 2 hours, in total. If we had shopped retail at Old Navy or The Gap, we probably could have found some jeans to her liking for $20 to $30. I'd say for a $20-$30 savings, the extra work, to customize these jeans, was well worth it.

In the perfect world, both daughters would have found exactly what they wanted on that day. But life's not perfect, and we sometimes have to adapt, either our attitudes and wants, or what we've been provided with.

Saving electricity by maxxing out my oven on baking day

This was all baked in the same oven, at the same time, using the oven for 30 minutes, total.

I've been using my toaster oven and microwave for most of my oven needs this summer. But when I need to do a major baking, like a 5-loaf batch of sandwich bread, I use the main oven. And I bake up most of the week's breads, muffins, cakes and pies, at the same time. I have a good old-fashioned, Little House-style, baking day.

Back when women baked with wood or coal for fuel, having a baking day was the efficient use of the stove. A cast iron stove can retain heat for a long time, meaning that if one were to bake a batch of bread, they might as well take advantage of the residual heat and bake for several hours. It is work to get a wood or coal fire up to the right temperature for baking. While a joint of meat can roast at any temperature between 275 and 400 degrees, and the temperature can fluctuate throughout the baking period without significant undesired effect, a pie or loaf of bread, really does need consistent, even and moderate heat.

Baking days fell out of favor when women were fortunate enough to step into the age of electric and gas ovens. With electricity or gas, a precise temperature for baking could be effortlessly dialed up and ready to go, in a matter of minutes. It became possible to bake any or every day of the week.

While no longer necessary, baking days can still be beneficial. You can bake a week's worth of items in one day. You can use your energy with efficiency, by getting out the mixer, and ingredients all in one go. I typically begin measuring into different bowls, all in a line, for the various items that I'm baking. For some items, I mix up a large batch of yeast dough, to divide into portions for different types of breads and buns. And, if you max out your oven's capacity, you can save electricity, by preheating once, and loading up the oven for one baking period.

Here's how I make sure that my oven is maxxed out.

I look over my menu plan for the week and see what will need baking, and that can go into the oven at the same temperature, more or less. As my yeast dough is mixing in the KitchenAid, I open the oven and place inside, the various baking pans that I'll be using.

Here you can see I have a muffin tin (for zucchini muffins), a large baking sheet (for 1 loaf of Savory Rosemary Bread and 1 loaf of French bread to use for garlic bread later in the week), and a jelly roll pan (for burger/sandwich buns and hot dog buns). I have an open space on the bottom rack. That's when I go back to my menu, to see what might also fit in the oven. Aha! A cake! I am needing a cake for the freezer anyways (for those cake emergencies, of course!). So I decide to bake 2 round layers of yellow cake.

If I turn my jelly roll pan the long way, I can fit two cake rounds on the left side of the bottom rack.
I've now maxxed out my oven for one 30-minute baking period.

The suggested baking temperatures for the items range from 325 to 375 (convection). I settle on 335, so that the most delicate of the baking (the cakes) can have a temperature close to ideal. The rest of the items can be more forgiving.

As the yeast dough rises, I prepare my quick breads and cakes. I time the addition of liquids to these quick breads/cakes to the yeast bread's rise. When it looks like the yeasted bread will be ready soon for the oven. I preheat the oven, and quickly finish up the cake and muffin batter, and into the pans.

I load up the oven, and set the timers. I have 3 timers in the kitchen. I set all three, timed to different items. To keep it clear which timer is for which item, I place the recipe card or cookbook next to that timer.

I had the oven on for 30 minutes, total, costing about 7 cents in electricity. I removed items as they finished baking. The last item to remain in the oven was the sheet pan of Savory Rosemary Bread and French bread. It looked like it needed an additional 4-5 minutes. So I shut off the oven, and let the bread continue baking in the still hot, but not on, oven, for those additional minutes.

Had I used this oven to do the same baking, but on different days, preheating the oven individually, as many as 6 times, and baking each product separately, it could have cost as much as 42 cents in electricity, to bake the same foods.

I might have used my smaller wall oven, at 11 cents per hour, or 33 cents of electricity, total for the week.

Or, perhaps I would have used my toaster oven, on several days. As I can't get more than 1 layer of cake, or 6 muffins, in there at a time, I might have baked in the toaster oven for a total of eight 30-minute time periods, for a cost of 12 cents in electricity, not including several (6) preheating time periods.

In any case, I saved electricity and hard-earned money. And my motto is, "money we save, is money we don't have to earn, no matter how small the amount." Franklin's phrase is catchier, but mine gets the point home to family members, loud and clear.

Maxxing out the oven with oven meals

One of my mom's old cookbooks (from 1957) recommends using your oven efficiently in this same manner. They suggest making an oven dinner, where all the components of dinner are baked in the oven at the same time. Here's an example of one of their oven meal suggestions. Using 2 racks in a full-sized oven, twin meat loaves in a shallow pan, carrots in a covered casserole, baked beans in an open casserole, potato halves in a shallow baker, and baked apples in an open casserole. Everything in this menu is baked at 350 degrees F, for 1 hour.

If I know ahead that I will want to use the oven for a couple of items for dinner, I will also postpone any baking until dinner prep time. And I'll consider what else could fit into the oven, to get the most from it's heat, sometimes a baked dessert, and another component of the dinner which I normally cook on the stove top (like vegetables), and often times tossing in a few whole potatoes, to bake with everything else. Those baked potatoes can be the backbone for a simple supper of hash, the next night, or added to take away lunches the next day, or enjoyed with breakfast, in lieu of toast.

There's a side benefit to having a baking day, or making an oven meal -- saving time. I spent 30 minutes watching the ovens on this latest baking day, instead of of potentially 3-4 hours over the course of the week. And I had just one big clean-up, instead of needing to sweep up the scattered flour and sugar several days of the week. When making an oven meal, I put it all in the oven, set the timer, and I am free to catch up on the news, fold laundry, spiff myself up, or chat with family. No standing at the stove, stirring a pot and getting hot.

Just for fun, I thought you'd like to see that my kitchen gets messy, too. Half way through it all . . .

to the right of the stove

on the stove top itself

to the left of the stove

I didn't show you the floor. It's really hard not to scatter flour when working with yeast dough. :-)