Making 2 Tone Jeans

Before and after.

I have been wanting to make a pair of 2 tone jeans for a while. I had to wait until I could find 2 pairs of jeans with a similar cut and fit. I couldn't match up a pair of loose fit jeans with a pair of skinny jeans. These 2 were both a straight cut and fit me a tiny bit loose so, they would be a great pairing. (Don't use jeans that are too small or just barely fit, you need a bit of extra room for all the new seam allowances. Try for jeans that are at least 1/2 a size too big.)

I started cutting the jeans open with sharp sewing scissors. I needed each pair of jeans cut into 4 parts. I wanted the front and back of each leg separated and I wanted the left and right legs separated. I cut up the side of each leg, using the side seam as my guide. Then I cut the jeans apart in the center/crotch seam.

Basically I cut along the right side of the big seam in the center of the backside. I cut the blue jeans the same way. Cutting each pair of jeans the same way will make it easier to put the pieces together later.

I cut apart both pairs of jeans This might sound confusing. Keep reading for more pictures and explanations. It will make more sense in a minute.

I matched up the front and back pieces with pieces of the other color to show how I plan to put them together. There is a blue leg and a black leg in front and in back. I did not cut the zippers. I kept them intact. Let me show you what I mean.

I kept enough fabric on the left side this zipper so that I could sew it to the blue side of the jeans. (About 1/2 an inch.) I did not want to remove the zipper completely stitch by stitch, just to sew it back in. This was much faster.

Here is a look at the zipper from the back. You need about half an inch of fabric next to the zipper to sew in to the other front piece. You can see how I sewed the 2 front pieces together with the right sides together. There was just enough black fabric to sew it to the blue half of the jeans. Cutting the front pieces like this also kept the button attached to the zipper piece. You will need a sewing machine for this project, I can't imagine sewing all this by hand.

I sewed the legs with the right sides together using a straight stitch. I started at the waistband and sewed down. I went back later and used a zigzag stitch on the edges to keep it the new seams from fraying. I wanted strong seams and sewing twice makes me feel more secure. You will end up with a pair of jeans that is inside out when you are done sewing all the pieces together with the right sides facing each other.

They looked like this when they were done and I turned them right-side out. The fronts and backs are blue and black. The blue jeans were a bit longer than the black. I cut off the excess blue so they would be even all around the ankle. I did not hem them. I wanted the frayed/released hem look.

Here is a good look at the back of the jeans. You can see the big seam from the black left leg is sewn on top of the blue right side. This is the only seam I did not sew with the right sides facing each other. I wanted that seam to show like a normal pair of jeans. I stitched right on top of the 2 lines of stitching that were already there.

I wanted to switch the pockets to the other colored side of the jeans.

I used a seam ripper to unpick the stitches on the back pocket. This took a little while but it wasn't difficult. I worked my way around both of the pockets and separated them from the jeans.

I sewed the pockets back on the jeans. I stitched over the stitching around the pockets.

It was easy to put the pockets in their new location because there were stitch marks where the pocket was originally. I just switched the sides and reattached the pockets. You can see the pockets were not the same size. You can see there is some roughness to the areas where the pockets came off the jeans. All that distressing is part of the look. It gives the jeans a lived-in vintage vibe.

I really liked how they turned out. They are fun and casual. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.