How to Upcycle Denim Into Cute Ruffle Hem Jeans

This project started out with a boring, too short pair of jeans and a strip of denim. All I intended to do was make some ruffled cuffs for the bottom edge.

As you’ll see, it turned into so much more!

Tools and materials: 

• Jeans
• Denim pieces
• Scissors
• Pins
• Pinking shears (optional)
• Sewing machine

1. The plan

I started out with a pair of lacklustre jeans that had seen better days and were unfashionably short on me. 

I also had the final leg of another pair of jeans that I’d refashioned into several different garments and trims.

2. Fixing the zipper

I got the jeans from a thrift store and discovered that the front closure had been sewn together halfway down. My first job was to unpick the stitching and hope the zipper itself was intact.

The zipper tab was missing, so I grabbed a spare one from my stash and tried to attach it to the zipper.

It went on the first side fairly easily, but I couldn’t get the second side to fit in the track because the tab wasn’t the right size.

Rather than spend too much time on it, I decided to remove the zipper entirely and stitch up the front opening for now so it lies flat. 

I also replaced the elastic in the waistband, because it was old and not doing a very good job.

3. The ruffles

Finally I could get to the bottom edge of the jeans, which is what this tutorial was supposed to have been about from the beginning.

I laid one leg flat on the table and lined up the lower edges.

I decided to chop off the hems at a gentle angle, because I thought it would look cuter. Then I used the first leg as a template to cut the second one.

I cut the spare denim into strips and joined them together, to make two very long lengths.

I didn’t finish the edges because I wanted them to look frayed.

I lined up one strip with the cut edge of the first leg, making sure to place the right sides together.

Then I folded the strip into my favorite pin tucks and pinned them all around the bottom edge of the jeans.

I stitched the ruffles in place and trimmed off the excess on the inside with pinking shears.

To make sure the ruffles don’t stick out at the bottom but lie flat against my leg, I stitched over the seam on the right side, using the “stitch in the ditch” technique.

4. Distressing

I really wanted the lower edge of the ruffle to fray a lot, so I threw the jeans in my washing machine with a load of laundry.

The result was pretty spectacular! 

You could certainly wear them this way but I decided to cut off the really long threads so I didn’t trip over them.

5. Back to the zipper

Of course, I ended up replacing the zipper with a 6 inch (15 cm) one from my stash.

It’s pretty straightforward to put in a new zipper. You just do exactly the reverse of what you did when you removed the old one, and attach the new one in the same place. 

It will work, I promise. Don’t let it intimidate you because it’s really a simple thing to do.