Boyfriend Jeans

(My homemade boyfriend jeans.)

Over the weekend, I “made” myself a pair of boyfriend jeans!  But don’t go getting all excited, because this isn’t a DIY post.  (You should know me better than that by now!)

I’m a big fan of Kohl’s Simply Vera Vera Wang jeans (I’ll never get why Wang’s cheap line says her name twice!), though I typically prefer the dark wash to minimize the pear part of my silhouette.  But I found this lighter pair of bootcut jeans on sale, complete with the whiskering I can’t stand.  Since the temperature is creeping over the 80 degree mark these days, I definitely don’t need more full-length jeans in my closet, and on Saturday, I took a pair of scissors to them, inspired partly by this post.

I’m a stay-at-home mom, and I fully admit to wearing capri jeans for most of the year.  I’m not embarrassed to share that fact, and I often make my own.  It’s too easy to do, by simply lining up a shorter pair of pants on top of the longer jeans, drawing a line, and cutting.  Just be sure that both pant legs are cut at the same general length, so you don’t get a lop-sided pair of jeans.  After that, you can wash the jeans, remove the loose threads as they unravel, roll up the cuffs, and voila!  A new pair of jeans!

I used some fabric scissors to distress my jeans ever so slightly, and I even tried the cheese grater approach.  Since my jeans are thicker than Emily’s shirt, it didn’t work as well, so I cut a few small slits at random points to make the jeans look more lived-in.  It didn’t take much, because they were sporting the worn-in look when I bought them.

These will be my at-home jeans for the spring and summer, and I’m surprised by how much I like them.  I typically prefer a more polished look, but I love the edginess they add to an outfit, especially combined with a feminine top and shoes.  I’ll post a picture as soon as I’m in a posing mood, but here’s a chance to appear in The New York Times in your own pair of boyfriend jeans!

Have you updated or improvised with a piece of your clothing?  I’d love to hear about it!