When Portia announced the #jeanius theme I got so excited; right away I saw the opportunity to do two things that I very much enjoy doing: work with denim and practice pants fitting – yeah I’m a little obsessed with pants fitting. Besides, I fell in love right away with the idea of taking some ragged, old and forgotten jeans and turn them into a wearable, comfortable, cool looking pair. Obviously, for inspiration I went to those that do brilliantly just the opposite: they take new denim and make it look loved to bare threads. Over the years the twins behind dsquared2 did whatever to denim: quilted, embroidered, patched, destroyed, painted, color blocked and embellished it in a million plus one ways.

Here it is the look I decided to emulate – the color blocked Icon jeans:

source http://www.dsquared2.com/us/5-pockets_cod42458018wf.html

 

They are cropped slouchy boyfriend cut, mid-rise with a bit of a drop crotch. Let’s face it, they do stand out of the dark blue sea of skinny jeans that everybody and her sister is wearing 😉

As someone who basically lives in jeans and finds it very hard to part with them, even if ten years later and ten pounds later they sure don’t fit anymore, I had no shortage of old pairs to choose from. To make these though, I needed a little more fabric than what I could recover from an old pair of mine. Luckily my man never throws the jeans he no longer uses too 🙂

These Levi’s are obviously to big for me but the waistband actually fits me mid-rise which made this pair the perfect candidate for the refashion I had in mind. I unpicked, side seams up to the pockets, inseams, center front and center back seams and the back to yoke seams (I knew I had to reduce the back rise)

I started pinning and basting one leg ( as I said: great pants fitting exercise).

 

I discovered that I needed to raise the front crotch a bit and didn’t have enough fabric so I patched some in.

 

 

When I was satisfied with the fit I copied the changes from one side to another using dressmaker’s tracing paper and a tracing wheel.

 

The jeans had a small tear at the back that I repaired by fusing a piece of light fusible interface to the back (to hold it in place) and machine free hand quilted over.

 

I didn’t have to but I chose to take off the pockets too and go with the extra long pockets which aid the drape. To cover the darker patch behind the original pocket I used the same pattern but lengthened it by approx. 2”. I cut the pockets from the lower part of the leg.

 

I think right now the pockets are a little too big. I wish they were more of a rectangular shape and set lower. Anyway, if I decide I don’t like them I can always take them off and reattach the original ones.

Pockets in place, I went on and finished constructing the top part, leaving only the inseam open. Putting together the color blocked leg was really easy. Enter a pair of dark almost black Calvins I had already used to make a couple of zipper pouches and had only one leg left, and a pair of bleached Guess I could get into only if by some miracle I woke up one day with the power to turn back the hands of time … not happening.

 

From the dark piece I cut lengthwise two strips 2” wide (+seam allowance). I would have preferred the fabric to be a bit more heavy – compared to the other two kinds of denim I used this is quite light.  From the bleached pair I measured and cut the lowest part of the leg (including the hem) and opened the inseam. I joined the pieces and finished the inseam.

Ta-da … new pair of jeans and I love them!

Portia I think you are the one to blame I now have a new favourite jeans cut: the slouchy skinny – slim enough to be stylish, but roomy enough to be able to wear for hours.

Thank you again for inviting me to this amazing refashioning party!

Crikey O’Reilly! I can’t tell you how much I want a pair of these!! Subtle and stylish colour splicing. (Splicing is the new blocking dontcha know?!). And I agree Sasha. I think I have a new favourite jeans cut in the “slouchy skinny” too. (I also think those oversized pockets are perfect…don’t change a thing!)  Now I defy anyone to tell me THAT is not, quite simply, a bloomin gorgeous pair of jeans! That my friends, is the potential in refashioning. Thank you so much Sasha!! Bellissima!   I’ve run out of exclamation marks….

You can find Sasha here or here. And if you’re inspired to get your refashion on and enter the Community Challenge and be in with a chance of winning some epic prizes…DO IT! Deadline for entries is 30th Sept. Midnight GMT.

….I think you’ve got the idea now right? Essentially we want you to refashion some jeans! (You can find the full details/small print of the brief here). BUT, if you want to be in with a chance of winning one of these amazing prize packages you need to SHARE that refashion with us in one of the following ways:

• On Instagram: Share a pic using the hashtags #therefashioners2016  and #jeanius
• On Pinterest: There is a community board here where you can pin your makes. (You will need to request an invite to join)
• On Facebook: There is a community board here where you can post your makes (You will need to request an invite to join)

Only entries shared via the above 3 methods will be entered into the competition. Closing date for entries is 30th September 2016 Midnight GMT. Good luck!!