Jeans don't fit right.
Can I get an Amen?
I don't care what your body type is, it seems all of us have this problem. Jeans are either too curvy, too straight, too long, too short, and on and on. I don't know any ladies that can just go into a store and grab their size off the rack, and take them home with confidence. Like my Husband does. He just grabs a pair or 34-32s, classic fit, and we're done. Or, other guys give him their old jeans, and he just wears them. With a belt if necessary. I need a belt just to make sure no one can see into the massive gap left by a waist that is not nearly curvy enough. Or to hold up jeans that are so low-rise I may be in danger of them collapsing like the stock market.
Several years ago, I figured out what my problem was: I'm too long. Not only am I long in the legs, I am long waisted. If I find jeans that ARE curvy enough, they're certainly not long enough from hip to thigh for me to take advantage of those curves. So I need curvy jeans in xtra-long. And I need to either chop off a couple inches at the bottom, or just let them get really, really scruffy. Sigh. And let's not forget the most important consideration: bells.
I have got to have my bell bottoms! I made my first pair of inset bell bottoms in junior high. The tight-rolling trend was just starting to drift away. I got a cute pair of vintage jeans with little flowers embroidered on the back, and my mom helped me inset some flower-patterned material. My best friend told me my pants were so ugly she wanted to puke. But she was just jealous. They were gorgeous. The next year Bell-bottoms came "out" and I got a pair with bleached in Daisies off the rack. (This was in 7th grade, so I didn't have hips yet.)
I've been inserting bells ever since, because 1)I am a little bit of a flower child, and 2)Let's face it, girls with hips look better in bells. I don't care how popular skinny jeans become, my butt will not look good in them. Even with a tunic.
Enter Thrifted jeans. For one thing, it is so much easier to chop up a pair of jeans that you got for $3.49 than ones you spent $60 on. And there are so many groovy styles just waiting to be found. And there is the added bonus that they've already shrunk!
Often, I go for Wranglers, which are not only made curvy and high waisted, but come in more precise lengths, and in this rural area, I can almost always find a pair in 32" long. Sometimes there are nice surprises. Like, I recently got a pair of GLO by J.Lo that only needed to have the hem let out. (Turns out I have a more ethnic figure than my Scottish-Hungarian ancestry accounts for.)
Here are my current favorites. They are by Blue Asphalt, but the bells are by me. (With a little help from some of Adam's old jeans.) They're a little more low-rise than I usually go for, but that makes them fun. And they look super with a peasant top.
I know I'm not alone here, and I'd love to see or hear about your thrifted jeans!
99 Ways To Cut, Sew, and Deck Out Your Denim- by Faith Blakeney, Justina Blakeney and Ellen Schultz. 
