How to distress your jeans at home
By People Reporter, February 1, 2020By Vanessa Waithira
Just because your favourite pair of jeans have grown old doesn’t mean you have to give them up.
You can give them a new look. Yes, time for a brand-new (old) pair of jans with a few DIY steps to give them a frayed look for that cool effortless street style.
Distressing your jeans at home may seem straightforward, but it needs to be carefully done if the jeans are to look the part.
You do not want to look shady, or like you’re trying too hard, or worse, destroy the pants. Here are the steps to follow;
1. Select your pair
Don’t throw away those old pair of jeans – yet. It’s time to give them a new look and if these steps don’t work out, then you won’t feel too bad. It is also better to use jeans that are light in colour, so that the distressing looks more natural.
2. Get the right tools
You’ll need a sand paper, a chalk for marking, foot file or pumice stone to weaken the part you’ll distress, a razor or scissors to make cuts, tweezers to pull out some threads, a carton board to act as a buffer and a safety pin.
3. Mapping
Use a chalk or marker to map out the area you’ll distress. You can make the markings while you have the jeans on, so you mark the right spots. Don’t put too many, you don’t want to look ratchet.
4. Start distressing
Lay the jeans on a flat surface and place the carton board under the part you want to work on, so as to protect the other side of the trouser from damage. Use a pumice and sandpaper to smooth it out until the part thins and looks worn. This step might take time depending on how thick the jeans are.
5. Ripping
Using the edge of the scissors or a blade, cut horizontally across the area you selected. Make another horizontal cut slightly above it to make a strip. You can make several strips, and for a more natural look, make the cuts uneven in length. You don’t need so many though, as the distressed part can expand with time.
6. Fringing
Use a safety pin to pull out a few white threads running horizontally, so as to make a little fringe along the cuts to allow you to pull out the threads running vertically.
7. Pull out threads
Now use the tweezers to pull out the threads running vertically on each strip until all that’s showing are the white threads running horizontally.
Voila, you are now ready to bless the streets with your homemade cool.