my bellbottoms

  
This is a picture of my favorite jeans.  They started out as my work jeans (LEI jeans from Walmart).  When I no longer needed to wear them to work, I put them in the closet and never wore them.  I decided to try and make a pair of bell bottoms, so I pulled out my LEI's and a tie-dyed t-shirt that I didn't really wear all that much.
     First, the jeans were a very dark wash, so I mixed some bleach with water (about 50/50) and sprayed the jeans until they were wet.  I hung them in the bathroom over the tub and checked on them a lot.  When I thought they were a nice hippie color, I rinsed and washed them.  They turned out perfect.
I used a seam ripper to detach the jeans up to the knee on the outside seam.
I cut the t-shirt into two equal triangles by putting the shirt inside the opening I had just created in the jeans and marking the corners with pins.  I gave myself a small seam allowance and cut the triangles out of the shirts.  I pinned each side into place and sewed them in on my machine (with the pants inside out to hide the seams).
     They looked cool, but not cool enough, so I sewed the little bird applique on one side.  The bird was cut from a plain black t-shirt.  I used the scraps from the same shirt i used for the sides and made little flowers, then used embroidery thread to make the stems and leaves.
Here is a picture of the details