My Old Skinnies Become New Clamdiggers

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Angie is co-founder of YLF and its resident fashion stylist.

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My Old Skinnies Become New Clamdiggers

— by Angie

on July 27, 2011

A pair of 7 For all Mankind “Roxanne” skinnies and a pair of Marc Jacobs straight leg jeans were rescued from the donate-pile last Sunday morning. The Roxanne’s were awfully faded and had a tear in the bottom left leg, while the MJ’s were never quite the same after being laundered at a hotel. So I got out my fabric scissors and transformed the two pairs of jeans into cropped clamdiggers. I cut them a few inches below the bottom of my knee cap so that I can roll them up to a flattering length. At this point I’m not even going to bother with sewing in a proper hem because they are super casual.

I bat for Team Wear, so I wore the cropped Roxanne’s right away under a sleeveless dropped waist grey pinstripe sheath dress with flat oxfords. It was fun to repurpose two pairs of premium denim jeans in this way. I certainly didn’t turn up my nose at two pairs of free clamdiggers!

Alterations · Bottoms

41 comments · Add a comment

(website)

Veteran

This sounds wonderful– but I’d love to see the results!

July 27, 2011 at 2:16 pm

Atlantia

Veteran

Sounds as though you are describing the outfit I noticed you sporting in the pics from Phoebe’s photo shoot. Loved it, and so happy to find out what the components were.

July 27, 2011 at 2:18 pm

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

All in good time, ladies

I happen to be wearing the cropped MJ’s right now.

July 27, 2011 at 2:26 pm

Inge

Excellent decision if you ask me: you looked super in Phoebe’s blog post wearing clamdiggers, that fantastic dress and your delicious two-toned oxfords!

And it’s always fun when you can rescue a fab (premium) item and get some more wear out of it.

July 27, 2011 at 2:41 pm

Aziraphale

Veteran

Right on, Angie! I just did the same thing with an ankle-length faded denim skirt that I bought in 2003. I never wore it because, although I liked the look, it turns out that I find that length in a casual skirt to be uncomfortable. Plus it probably wasn’t the best look on me. So now it’s a casual above-knee skirt with a frayed hem, and I seriously wear it all the time!

July 27, 2011 at 3:12 pm

Laura

(website)

Veteran

And this is why premium denim is worth every penny!
Enjoy your new clams

July 27, 2011 at 3:20 pm

Queen Mum

Veteran

Brilliant! Is the raw edge not going to fray? That is what I’d be concerned about. I did notice your fab clam/dress combo in Phoebe’s photo shoot.

July 27, 2011 at 3:28 pm

patti

(website)

Active Member

I have done this too, and I got my new favorite pair of knee-shorts. They don’t fray much in the wash, for whatever reason. Yay for recycling.

July 27, 2011 at 3:34 pm

taylor

Veteran

High 5 Angie…just cut a pr. of Hudson/ and DVB flairs to shorts and a pr. of True Religions flairs into skinnies, for an upcoming vaca.
I determined that I will never wear flairs again…never liked them on me, so with the price of designer denim…why waste!!

July 27, 2011 at 3:37 pm

Sihaya

Veteran

What a great idea. I do this with my kids’ long pants that last a few weeks before there are tears in the knees. They have an excess of shorts. Why not try that with my jeans? Great idea, thanks Angie.

July 27, 2011 at 4:00 pm

lyn*

(website)

Veteran

I may have done this recently too

July 27, 2011 at 4:01 pm

anne

Veteran

I don’t have any clams that were originally like that as purchased. One was that awful that cropped length, the other were skinnies. (not repurposed though, I cut them off new)
I am planning to crop my daughters jeggings which have wholes in the knee

July 27, 2011 at 4:07 pm

cciele

Veteran

oooo I can’t wait to see the results! A few weeks ago, I chopped the legs off a pair of Earnest Sewn boyfriend jeans that were in the discard pile and made them into shorts. Fun with scissors

July 27, 2011 at 4:41 pm

chewyspaghetti

Veteran

This is a great way to repurpose old skinnies.

July 27, 2011 at 4:47 pm

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Thanks, Inge, Kim and Atlantia

Kim, I’m not sure how fast the raw edge in going to fray. I guess I shall find out.

High five back, Taylor! Orphaned jeans are a waste of money so good for you.

Cciele, I can SO relate to having fun with scissors. I think I have the scissor-happy gene.

July 27, 2011 at 4:58 pm

Sparky

Veteran

I was admiring your outfit in the post on Phoebe, and immediately thought of it when reading this. I know the focus was on Phoebe, but you did give me the idea to wear a dress with clams ~ I already wear some dresses over full-length jeans, so this makes sense for warmer weather!

I never got holes in my jeans till I had kids. I’m sure I’ll have some jeans soon that can be repurposed this way!

July 27, 2011 at 5:19 pm

Angela

Love to see a picture as well.

You could run a quick zig zag around them, not a hem butstops the fraying, if you are rolling them anyway …I may have a good look in my closet too..I have some clam diggers that don’t flatter, I wonder if they would as shorts??? Mmm, might get scissor happy too

July 27, 2011 at 5:22 pm

MsMary

Veteran

Fun! I love how you take charge of your clothes and tell them what to do, instead of the other way around!

July 27, 2011 at 5:32 pm

Diana

Veteran

Hooray for repurposing old denim! This reminds me that I’ve been meaning to chop up a couple of pairs of old jeans that are no longer PPL…

July 27, 2011 at 5:40 pm

Carole

Veteran

Wow, way to go! I”m impressed. Patiently waiting for pictures, pretty please.

July 27, 2011 at 6:22 pm

(website)

Veteran

I’m happy to hear that you do this, too! I made some odd length capris into bermudas this summer and I swear they are my most oft worn shorts this year, hands down! They were over 5 years old and were a bargain back then, so I debated the price to hem. But I think I’ve worn them more this year as shorts than all those previous years as capris combined! Money well spent, and I believe repurposing whenever possible is awesome.

July 27, 2011 at 7:46 pm

san

Veteran

Cute!! Very good thinking and it’s good to remind us all to repurpose things like this.

July 27, 2011 at 7:50 pm

sarah

Veteran

I love this! This summer I remade four pairs of pants into clams, bermudas, or cutoffs. I LOVE how easy it is to retool longer pants into new summer ones! Can’t wait to see yours in action.

July 27, 2011 at 8:32 pm

Vani

Veteran

I loved that outfit when spied in Phoebe’s photoshoot – deelish!

July 27, 2011 at 9:26 pm

Scarlet

Veteran

I love that you are so pleased with your new cut offs that you wear them right away. Actually between you and Taylor I am re-envisioning some jeans I don’t get much use from. Also I wonder if the denim clams I do have couldn’t be shortened a bit. There is a world of possibility out there.

July 27, 2011 at 11:29 pm

Aunty

Veteran

Great stuff!! I love it when you can rework clothes

July 28, 2011 at 1:32 am

Lisa

Veteran

Great idea! I have two pairs of jeans in my donate pile, they may have to be rescued now.

July 28, 2011 at 4:17 am

April

Veteran

I’m a big fan of this alteration myself — it’s the perfect thing when a petite-sized jean turns out to be an ankle pant after one washing.

July 28, 2011 at 4:20 am

Polly (thunalata)

Veteran

Perfect! I’ve done this to one of my pre-YLF too short pants and look forward to being able to do this in the future with better fitting jeans! I love seeing you do that.

July 28, 2011 at 4:21 am

Jonesy

Veteran

Fabulous! I have several pairs of cut-off capris that I wear a ton in the summer! I really love the look of the fraying, actually :).

July 28, 2011 at 6:33 am

morethanbeige

Veteran

Ooo, great idea. I’m thinking….

July 28, 2011 at 6:56 am

Clover

Super way to recycle. I have been wearing a pair o fsnipped jeans for several summers now. They became too short so they have been cropped to varying lengths but have settled on the clam length as yours are. The fit up top is great, I just can’t let them go!

July 28, 2011 at 7:19 am

Lissie

After admiring a pair of cropped length Elizabeth & James jeans for a couple of months, I decided to take scissors to a pair of older premium jeans that had too much flare at the bottom for my taste. I did fringe the last 1/4 inch of the jeans, so I do not wear them rolled. I wear them with ballet flats and a casual Kate Spade tunic and have had a ton of positive comments. Best of all, I have worn the jeans more in the last month than in the two years I owned them as full length jeans.

They work great for a fun, easy summer look as shown below, but I also plan on wearing them with a an oversized merino sweatshirt and pennie loafters for fall.

http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=34702616

July 28, 2011 at 8:20 am

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Love all the repurposing!

July 28, 2011 at 8:49 am

mrseccentric

(website)

Veteran

Yay! i just can’t tell you how many times i’ve tweaked clothing or totally re-vamped it in order to give it new life. these sound great – and now that your outfit pics are up, i can see they LOOK great as well!

i love that you chose to blog about this – so much of the fashion/style world is about ‘shopping shopping shopping’, which is fine as far as it goes. but STYLE, to me, is about looking at the world around you in a creative way, relaxing and feeling free to do the unexpected. style is something *** we create *** – not a commodity for purchase.

even better to see so many commenters here also take their fashion fates into their own hands!! love you all, steph

July 28, 2011 at 9:05 am

Joy

Veteran

Last summer I did this with some thrift store skinny pants and have had lots of wear from them. They don’t fray much. I had a couple pairs hemmed and actually like the look of the rolled ones better.

July 28, 2011 at 1:49 pm