I’ve been searching around for some boyfriend jeans for quite a while, but they were just a bit too pricey to me, especially for jeans that look like something I could make myself. Boyfriend jeans are somewhat baggy, loose-fit jeans that…well…look like they belong to your boyfriend! To me, they’re perfect because I don’t always like wearing jeans that fit me so snug. So you know what I did? I made a pair myself! Here’s how to make a pair of boyfriend jeans!
What you’ll need:
- A pair of scissors
- Tweezers
- A piece of chalk or highlighter
- A ruler (but this is not required)
- An old pair of jeans
Step 1:
Get an old pair of jeans. Usually, I get my jeans that I want to make into high-waisted shorts or boyfriend jeans from a thrift store. I got this pair from Goodwill. Repeat Boutique and Hope Thrift are some other great thrifts store in the Valdosta area. When you’re looking for a pair of jeans, try to get a baggy pair. “Mom jeans,” or a pair of vintage high-waisted jeans, are really good to use for this. However, you could actually buy a pair of jeans from the men’s section. I never pay any more than $5 a pair.
Step 2:
If you’d like to distress your jeans, which usually looks better for boyfriend jeans, all you need is a chalk or highlighter, tweezers and a pair of scissors. If you’d like for the lines to be straighter, you can use a ruler to mark where you want the tears in your jeans to go. I, on the other hand, often just freehand it. Draw one line where you want the top of the rip to start, and draw another line parallel to the first, right below it, about an inch apart. You can do as little or as much distressing if you want. With boyfriend jeans, the more distressed, the better. One thing to keep in mind is to not make any rips too close to the crotch area or where you may see undergarments. If it helps more, you can sketch out where you want the rips to be while wearing the jeans!
Step 3:
The first step to distressing after sketching out where you want the rips to be is to cut lines in the jeans. Take a pair of scissors and cut where you drew the lines. Be sure to only cut the top layer of the jeans, and not all the way through. Do this on all of the lines you drew.
Step 4:
This is probably the most tedious part of the process, but the next step is to basically tweez out the vertical blue/denim strands of thread. This is what gives you the horizontal white pieces of thread in the jeans. Carefully pick out the blue strands, trying not to rip the white strands in the process. It should start to look like this:
Tweeze out all of the blue strands between the two cuts you made. However, if you don’t want to go through all of the trouble of tweezing out the blue stands, you don’t have to. You can just leave the rips that you made with scissors as they are and they will naturally distress over time. To me, the tweezing method just gives it a more distressed look.
Step 5:
I like to roll the ends of mine up a little, as it just gives it a cuter look. Although, you can leave them unrolled if you would like.
Step 6:
It may look a little odd once you’re finished, such as the photo above. Not that anything is wrong with the jeans, it just looks really blunt and not worn in enough. The finally step is to throw the jeans in the washing machine and then in the dryer afterward. This gives you the complete look, like in the picture below!
Boyfriend jeans can be paired with heels, sneakers, blazers and tank tops, dressy tops, or casual tops. Hope your first pair of homemade boyfriend jeans is a success!
HCXO!