The EASY Way To Update Old Jeans Into Cropped Ankle Jeans

I found a pair of Hudson Jeans at the thrift store. The brand sells quality denim so I was very excited to only pay $7 for the pair that retailed for nearly $200.

The only problem was they were incredibly long and unflattering on me.

I decided they would be perfect with just a quick makeover.

To decide exactly how I should crop the jeans I referred to Hudson's website. I noticed this style is super popular so I decided to alter the jeans I purchased to a cropped length.

To make the easy crop I simply put the jeans on, and then flipped up the bottom hem inside out as if I was wearing them cuffed.

I rolled them up until the bottom hem of the jeans sat about where I wanted my finished crops to hit.

I did my best to make them even on both sides but ultimately used a measuring tape to make sure they were even once I had taken them off.

Once I had the cuffs where I wanted them, I took the jeans off and used pink unicorn sewing pins to tack the cuffs into place.

I then went over to my sewing machine (using dark blue thread), and sewed a straight stitch right next to the seam of the bottom hem.

To give you a better idea how this should look, your needle should be located right outside of the bottom hem of the jeans. you want this to be *as close* as possible to that bottom seam without actually sewing through the seam.

Once I finished making a straight stitch all the way around the pant leg, I changed my sewing machine to a zig zag stitch and sewed around the entire pant leg just about 1/8th of an inch the right of my straight stitch.

This is what the zig zag stitch should look like. I did this stitch to prevent and minimize fraying of the raw edge I was about to create.

After that I simply took a pair of scissors and cut as close as possible to the zig zag stitch to remove excess material.

This is how much length I took off of these jeans! I put this extra material away for future use on refashioning projects.

I then flipped the bottom hem back down, and used an iron to press open the seam I just created by essentially sewing that bottom hem to the ankle of my jeans and trimming the excess.

Pressing this helps that bottom seam stay down and not flip back up.

This is the finished product! Now my jeans are much more flattering and current.

By keeping the original bottom hem, it looks like these weren't even altered.

I've worn these non-stop since this thrift flip and love how they came out.

Let me know how you think I did below. Isn't it crazy the difference a crop can do for a pair of jeans?

If you'd like to see more easy refashioning ideas, please visit my YouTube channel, Sew Much 2 Wear.

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