Hippies and bellbottoms are synonymous with each other. The young generation of the 1960’s counter culture wholeheartedly embraced what had originally been a naval fashion and made it their own. While bellbottoms could be purchased in the 60’s, many stores refused to sell them due to the counter culture fashion statement they were becoming famous for. As such, many flower children took ordinary jeans and turned them into bellbottoms by slicing open the outer seams and inserting a triangular piece of denim or other material. This sometimes led to very large bells.
Today the fashion seems to have returned, albeit in a less wide fashion now called “boot cut.” The jeans are worn by both men and women today. Personally, I have never liked jeans with tight bottoms and I have found that even boot cut jeans are too close around the ankles for my taste. As such, I generally look back to the earlier decades and take a page out the fashion books by making my own. This allows me to be in control of the amount of flare.
These jeans are made “hippie style” so any pair of jeans can be used, straight-legged or flared. Begin by cutting off the outer seam up the knee on the pair of jeans. Sew off the remainder of the seam to ensure it does not unravel. Measure a piece of denim the same height as the jeans from knee to bottom. Cut it into a triangular shape, finishing the top at a point. You can either use the same color denim as the pair of jeans or create a contrasting effect by using a lighter or darker colored denim. You can also go really wild and use an insert of some other heavy material instead of denim. Anything with bright colors will make an interesting fashion statement against the blue denim.
Insert the triangular wedge into the sliced outer seam. Sew the triangle into the jeans. If hand sewing, use a double thread. If sewing on a machine, go over the stitches twice. Repeat on the other pant leg. Hem the bottom of the jeans to finish.
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