I think Carissa mentioned she was doing this with her wide leg trousers in Garmenta's thread on the trousers. Hopefully she will chime in soon! Do you have a good tailor whom you trust?

It might not be possible, depending on how the bootcuts are cut (knee break or not). You can always have them altered to a smaller flare, though.

Khris is right- this may not be possible, depending on how slim the bootcuts are now.

True bootcuts are cut quite close in the knee, so turning them into a straightleg (which ironically are often slightly roomier in that area) might not be possible. You could easily turn them into slimmer bootcuts or very tapered skinnies, though.

I bet just bringing in the flare to "straight-leg size" would look good, and it would certainly be close enough to a straight-leg, if not "technically" one.

I did this alteration for my grand daughter. I used a long straight edge and drew a seam line from the narrow part at the outside knee, and again on the inner thigh, to a point at the ankle that would make the ankle be 14" or 15". This worked great on the jeans I was working on but as mentioned above the taper of your jeans may be different at the knee and you might try them on and analyze that first. Also the amount of stretch in the fabric could come into play.

I asked at Nordstroms if they would do this sort of alteration and they do not with jeans. It may have been the jeans that I had in mind would not have worked.

Thanks for all the good advice! These jeans *are* cut quite closely at the knee - in fact, that's why I used to like them so much (and bought three pairs.) It looks as if a straight-leg may not be possible, but I'm hoping they can be improved. I don't have a tailor, but I obviously need one! I'll take one pair and report back. Again, thanks - I had never considered the knee issue.

I seem to remember one of the Academichics making her own altered skinny jeans. Ah, here we go. E. cites the tutorial she used when she altered them, so maybe that could help if you want to try it yourself.

I had this done last fall with a pair of DK bootcut jeans and it worked like a charm. Plus, it was very inexpensive.