Tragic to Magic

To begin my blog this week is a tragic story. The story of a how my favorite pair of jeans became destroyed. This weekend, on the beautiful Saturday we just experienced, my friends and I decided to go downtown to enjoy the day. However, as I was getting dressed, my favorite pair of jeans, aka my boyfriend jeans, decided to rip to the point of no repair. I now have a hole that extends down half my leg!

I was so depressed about it, and when I was looking for another pair of jeans to wear, I found a pair I had bought from a thrift store for $6 that I forgot about! They were purchased from Salvation Army over the summer, and I hadn't done anything to them so they were pretty plain. I was pumped, not only because I now had another pair of boyfriend jeans, but that I could do one of my favorite things, which was distressing them. One of my favorite things to do is to buy old pairs of jeans, and make them into shorts or more interesting jeans. Now you might be wondering, how do you make a pair of jeans into better ones? Well, let me explain. It is a simple process, but takes some practice.

My first pair I did this too was back in the eighth grade, and since then I have perfected the practice. To create your own pair of ripped jeans, the first thing is to find a pair. You can either use a pair you already own that you want to spice up, or you can go to your local thrift store or consignment shop and find a pair, which is what I do. One of the perks of doing this is that if you mess up, t's ok because they were super cheap anyway. So the next thing to do is to find a pair of scissors you don't mind using on denim, as sometimes the scissors can take a beating from the thickness of the fabric. You will also need a good surface to do this on,  like an sturdy table or stool.

                                          finished rips once they have gone through the wash

Next, decide how distressed you want your pants to be, just keep in mind they will become more distressed over time, the more you wear them and wash them. I find the easiest way to begin the cut your pants is to pinch them, and begin the cut there, and then unfold. Continue doing this for a little until you have the desired length of that particular area of rips. You can alternate lengths of cuts, so it looks more natural and asymmetrical. You can also do this on the pockets, both front and back. To make these cuts more rugged, you can run your scissors along the cuts, and don't be afraid to be tough on it, it's not supposed to look perfect! The final step is to run your new pants through the wash, this will really make them look newly distressed. I hope this small run through helps anyone interested in doing this! It saves you a bunch of money, gives you a fun hobby, and you can proudly tell people that you created your jeans yourself when they ask where you got them from.