That was some good advice.

Thanks for all the comments on my last post. I decided to hem the jeans and finish the waistband with a shank jeans button. I always have trouble getting the shank and the base to stay together while I hammer at it. My hack trick is to put the shank in the base and then step on it (of course, while wearing hard soled shoes), which gets the two pieces to stick just well enough so that I can hammer it.
Here are some photos of the finished deal. These jeans are so comfortable. I'm glad that I didn't get rid of them.
As I mentioned, I wanted a pair of jeans so badly that I didn't plan ahead. Luckily I had denim and a jeans zipper in my stash, but I didn't have enough of any one color of topstitching thread. I had beige, brown, rust, and white left over from past jeans projects... I used the beige and brown on the patch pockets and fly, the rust (which ended up looking red against this denim) on the waistband and inseams... and then ran out so stitched two lines of normal weight red thread to finish the topstitching. I think that throwing the white topstitching thread would have been too much going on.

Here's a closeup. You can see the different colors on the yokes, pockets, and waistband. I always stitch the pocketbag to the back of the leg with topstitching.

I used leftover seersucker from the sundress I made in January for the waistband and pockets. I like using a lighter weight fabric to line jeans waistbands. It's more comfortable to wear and the turn of cloth is easier to stitch. Win win, I think. I also always stitch twill tape at the waistband seam to keep the waistband from stretching from wear.

Here are the inseams and hems. Unlike the red pants, these didn't turn out skin tight (which is a good thing, I think) -- maybe it's the change in fabric, and I'm pretty happy to have a slim fit jeans pattern in my stash now!