Ever tuck your skinny jeans into your boots to look a little more put together on a casual attire day, only to find yourself constantly adjusting your jeans to smooth out the bunched up portion around your knees? Here’s the thing…I don’t want to wear extremely tight skinny jeans to the point of suffocation, plus (and more importantly) I’m no longer built for anything that revealing, especially around the mid section. But when I want to tuck my skinny jeans into my boots, the fact that they’re not as tight as typical jeggings makes them bunch up at the top of my boots. So what’s the solution? I happen to see the stirrup skinnies (see outfit pic below) at the Gap last year, bought one and fell in love with how much easier they were to tuck into my boots. So much so that I ran out and bought a second pair. Glad I did too…they no longer carry them. I remember buying the stirrup leggings in the 80’s (oh man…hideous now that I look back on some “blackmail-worthy” photos) worn with ginormous shoulder padded blazers…yikes! These are nothing like those knit stirrups (or will I look back on these in 20 years and think the same? hope not…lol). Anyway, I’ve not been able to find these anywhere so I decided to make my own. I have some really inexpensive skinny jeans from Forever 21 that I added elastics to at the hem and voila…instant stirrups. The great thing is you don’t need much; just very basic sewing skills (since the hem is tucked into your boots, it doesn’t even need to be perfectly sewn) and a few items.
What you’ll need:
1. Skinny jeans or jeggings; these are less than $11 from Forever 21
2. Sewing Kit: needle, thread (matching your elastic)
3. Scissors
4. Pins
5. Elastic (white or black) – 1″ to 1.5″ wide, depending on your preference – I got mine from Joann Fabrics; Walmart carries it too.
How to create stirrup:
1. Put on your skinny jeans or jeggings.
2. Take elastic and pin one end to left side of hem.
3. Pull elastic going under your foot to the right side of hem.
4. Pin elastic to right side of hem when you’re comfortable with the stretch it gives you.
5. Mark the length of the elastic with a pen and cut where marked, giving enough room on both ends for sewing.
6. Sew both ends as sturdy as you can; remember you will be constantly tugging on the elastic once you start wearing the finished jeans.
That’s it….pretty easy – see finished jeans below. I used my Forever 21 skinny jeans along with white elastic.
Finished product
Dear Boo and Lulu 
I love this! Nice idea adding the elastic to hold the pants! I used to have pants like that and I also have a pair og leggings like this one, it’s great! Lovely outfit!
@Andrea…thank you…I can’t find any of those stirrup leggings anymore which led me to this DIY.