Distressed Jeans
Distressed Jeans
Written by Jasmine Kroeze   
Wednesday, 29 July 2009 21:09

Distressing your old jeans for a fresh abrasive look, perfect for updating your wardrobe for Spring!

equipment

distressed |dî-strêst|
adjective
• affected with or suffering from distress

(of fabric)
• Made or processed to appear faded, wrinkled or aged, as if from long steady use.

ORIGIN [Middle English, distressen from Old French distresser, from distresse.]
What you'll need...

• A pair of Jeans (These are some oldies, but any old Lee's or Levi's will do!)
• Pumice (I picked mine up off the beach! Else the pharmacy or Farmers will have some for about 3 clams)
• Scissors and a Comb

STEP ONE... preppy

We gotta decide where we want the distressing...

 

Naturally wear occurs across the thighs and knees, but just check out some of the latest gear in stores for some inspiration!

 

Sandwich some old fabric between the denim layers, so you don't burr right through!

jeans before

pumice


STEP TWO... scratch out


Scratch the pumice back and forth across the fabric, you can get pretty brutal with it! Horizontal abrasion exposes the white threads which is everywhere right now...

 

Try circular motions as well, keep scraping away the denim and wearing the garment down until you get the desired effect.

STEP THREE... what a tease

 

For a decent looking rip, first wear down a section, say 10cm across the knee... then cut across the worn down area.

 

Grab your comb and tease out some of the threads so it frays like crazy!!

 distress

finished jeans

Variations


• Remember our first bleaching D.I.Y.? Haul out the bleach and attack your jeans with bleach as well!


• Distress a good 3cm square patch and then sew some contrast fabric underneath, like a cute floral!

 

• Cut off your jeans and make them into shorts, fray the hem and flick them up creating a 2cm cuff, and there you have some cute shorts for Spring!
 

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