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07.17.13

DIY Distressed Jeans

DIY Distressed Jeans

Materials: damp napkin, tweezers, tailor’s chalk, scissors, and jeans.

Put on your jeans and mark with the tailors chalk the area you want to distress.

Remove jeans and darken the lines.

Cut on or near the lines all the way to the seams of your jeans (left to the right).

Turn your jeans inside out, use your tweezers and pull the vertical threads (blue ones). the first thread is always tough, but once you get it, the rest come out pretty easy. you should also pull the treads in order, one after the other.

Pull the threads and use the damp cloth to hold them to cause less of a mess.

Pulling all the treads takes a lot of patience and time. I’m warning you now, your hands start hurting half way into it.

Final product before you wash them.

After wash and dry.

The final look after washing and drying. I poked a hole with scissors near the top right pocket and pulled it apart a little bit to add more distressing.

DIY Distressed Jeans TutorialFor full outfit details and more photos click on the links:
DSW Leopard Pumps 3 Ways // J.Crew Schoolboy Blazer // All White Everything

It’s taken me awhile to finally get around to creating this post, but it’s finally here! Once you start getting comfortable tearing your jeans apart, you’ll notice, the more imperfect they are, the better. Often times, I’ll put on a pair of jeans and want them distressed, so I’ll literally take a pair of scissors and cut a hole in them on the spot. It’s so addicting!

Since this process takes a while, most of the time I’ll distress one knee the way I showed above and simply cut a hole in the other knee to save time. By doing this, you keep the distressing in the two knees looking different and more natural.

You’ll also notice, your jeans will take shape and develop more personality with more and more wear. The washer and dryer will really help with the tattered look, but everyday wear will add the finishing touches.

A couple tips

  • – If this is your first time distressing, choose jeans you don’t care about, so that if you make a mistake you can just toss them.
  • – Make sure your jeans have white threads (I’ve done this to a pair of jeans with black threads and it was hideous!).
  • – You don’t necessarily need the Tailor’s chalk, you can kinda eyeball it.
  • – Always, always wash them after you distress them for a more tattered look.

If you have any other questions, please leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them =)