Leather Boots Refashion

Last year I bought two pairs of these boots from Fossil, the retail store where I work part-time. They were on SUPER sale, and with my employee discount they were unbelievably inexpensive. That's why I bought two pairs. So the price was right, and the boots were comfortable, all leather, and had a nice woven detail on the side. But there was one thing that I didn't consider: I didn't love them.
Why do I do that to myself? I can't pass up a good deal, even on items that I don't need or necessarily want.
Anyway, I was cleaning out my closet recently, and I found the boots that I had only worn a handful of times, and decided it was time to change them into something I would actually wear.
So they started out looking like this:

They weren't ugly or anything, but my main complaint was that they were too tall for my shorty legs. I like wearing tall socks that peek out at the top of my boots, but these went all the way up to my knee. And I felt a little like a go-go dancer when I wore them.
So I decided I could do without that band around the top. Here's how I did it.
I unpicked the inside seam where the top leather band meets the lining fabric (isn't the fabric cute?).

Then I unpicked the seam that attached the top band to the outside of the boot, and the whole top came off easily.

After removing the inner piping (no picture of that... it's just a piece of rope that was tucked up behind the leather so that it would give it that rim around the outside,) I cut off about 3/4" from the top band piece. I had to cut very straight because I knew I would be re-attaching this piece to the top of the boots.

I tucked in the excess lining fabric and held it in place with binder clips. I didn't use pins because I didn't want to poke holes in the leather.

And then I simply re-attached the trim piece that I cut from the top band.

And my boots were done!

All said and done, I only spent about an hour and a half on the project, and I got the results I wanted! So now I am going to tackle that second pair of boots. I'm still trying to decide if I want to shorten them like I did to these, or try something new! Let me know what you think in the comments below.