Distressed jeans are one of the biggest fashion trends of the past year and are likely to be sticking around for a while. Unfortunately, with extra distressing details comes the distress of extra costs. When you’re on a, student budget, it’s hard to convince yourself to spend the extra money on, as your grandmother would probably put it, “pants that are already wrecked.” If you are like me and still want to stay on trend but are broke,, HC has the perfect solution: a DIY guide on how to distress your own jeans. I tried this exact method on an old pair of jeans, and they look just like a brand new pair of distressed denim you would buy at the store. Grab an old pair of jeans and distress away – your wallet will thank you.
What you need:
- Chalk or a fabric pen
- x-acto knife or box cutter
- Magazine
- Tweezers
- An old pair of jeans that you’re prepared to distress
Step 1: Mark
First you need try on your jeans. This is extremely important so you don’t end up guesstimating where your knee is and end up with a rip down on your shin. Once your jeans are on, draw a rectangle with chalk on the areas you want the distressing to be. Make sure you draw your rectangle about the size you want the ripped portion to be.
Step 2: Cut
Lay your jeans down on a table or any flat surface and stick your magazine up the pant leg you are going to distress. Make sure the magazine is actually under the part you’re cutting so you don’t wreck the back of the pant leg. Take the box cutter and cut slits horizontally across the rectangles you’ve drawn. You want the slits to be about three inches apart in order to make the next step easier.
Step 3: Pull
Using tweezers, pull the vertical blue threads out of the sections between the slits. This is a little tricky to do at first, but once you get going, it’s not too bad. You should start to see only the white horizontal threads after a while. Continue this step until all the vertical blue threads have been removed and you are left with the white portion only.
Step 4: Wear!
You are now done and are ready to wear your “brand new” distressed jeans!