~*Annie*~'s advice column

I recently bought some pants at Goodwill and I want to change them to better fit my style. I would like to put inserts into the legs, to make them wider at the bottom. I need some tips on how to sew certain fabrics. Mostly just jean.
I have done it in the past, but did not use a sewing machine, and they ended up just fraying and tearing apart. Now I have a sewing machine, but would like to hear some tips on how to keep the fabrics from fraying and ripping.

I was also wondering if anyone could help me with the seams. I usually sew a long triangle up the side of the pant leg to make them wider, but at the top end, where the triangle comes together, usually ends up in a big bunch of wrinkled fabric.

Do you have any ideas on what color fabrics to put together?
What types of fabrics to put together?
Do you have any other ideas besides just widening the legs?
I do not enjoy the normal low hip flare style that every other single person wears.

Maybe instead of sewing a triangle, you can take out the seams on the outer part of the leg (I'm not sure, because it depends on what kind of fabric you have), snip of a few millimeters on the outside legs, and make whatever shape you want with the pants. Then, you can get this great stuff called Fraycheck. It's like this sticky stuff that you put on the ends of anything to prevent fraying (it dries and becomes like invisible after an hour) You can get Fraycheck at a crafts store or even at some fabric stores or at Jewel Osco or something like that.

It would be cute if you sewed patches on the pants. Just cut out any shapes you want and sew them on. Any fabric goes good with any color too. Just as long as it looks good to you. Maybe instead of widening the legs you can make cut-off pants, or you can cut out shapes in the pants fabric on the legs or something and then put fabric over the shapes (from the inside of the pants, otherwise you wouldn't be able to see the shape that you cut out). You can also get some Fabric BlowPens to make cool shapes, you can tydye the pants different colors (that may not look good though) or you can glue small rhinestones or studs to the pants here and there. Hope I helped! Sorry if I didn't :)

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(Rating: 5) Thanks for the interesting ideas. Some of them may be a little too over the top for me. I still need to go to college with these pants. Too many bright colors might blind my classmates.

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