It’s DIY time!!!! Yay!!!
I love a good DIY. Don’t you?! When I’m in a crafty mood (which is most of my life…obviously) I’m always doing something. I recently packed away my fall and winter clothes and pulled out my spring/summer clothes. The weather was playing tricks on me for a while so I didn’t want to go through the hassle of putting away my clothes and then end up needing them again. Anyway…I digress. So while organizing my clothes I noticed that I only had a few pair of shorts. I decided to up-cycle my jeans into shorts and capris to save a little bit of money and to make use of what I already had in my closet.
Let me show you what I came up with.
Materials Used
Scissors
Tweezers
Razor
Something to mark fabric
*using sharp scissors and tweezers work best
Canvas
I started out with a pair of jeans I previously customized. I’m really into distressed denim. I think it looks cool and brings a nice edge to an overall look. Last time I changed them into capris and added white fabric paint and created several large slits under the knees. While I love how they turned out previously. I thought they would be an even better canvas for shorts. These are vintage high waist jeans that I purchased from the thrift store.
Jean Short Customizing
1. To begin I first started out by trying the jeans on and marking where to cut for length. This is important because you don’t want to cut them too short. I leave a little room (about an inch) so that if I make a mistake I have material left to fix it. It’s also a good idea to leave a little room for customization purposes.
2. I cut the jeans at a diagonal but you can cut them straight across or various ways depending on what look you are going for. It is important to note that heavier jean fabric works best for distressing. When cutting denim the heavier material doesn’t unravel after washing them.
3. I wanted the ends of the shorts to be very distressed so I slightly opened my scissors and dragged them back and forth along the bottom where I just cut (I lightly pull the white strings slightly out as I go). Using tweezers for tugging the white strings (making sure to not completely pull them all the way out) worked great for this.
Distressing takes time so I continued to work at it until well…It looked good lol.
4. For the front of the shorts I wanted them to be a bit higher then the back but I also wanted the middle more distressed than the rest of the material. To achieve this look I cut a few slits in the center of each pant leg. You can do this part with a razor or scissors (be care not to cut yourself with the razor, use on a hard surface if using a razor).
5. After that I started to create the holes. I used my tweezers and carefully pulled out the blue strings leaving behind the white strings. This takes forever! Grab a snack lol.
6. Lastly I cut off the back pockets and made a few razor slits across the back pockets. After I was all done I washed and dried the jean shorts to seal in the work.
Tips
Use bleach to lighten your dark wash jeans. Just add bleach in a spray bottle and spray on areas you want to lighten up. You can also spray all over the material if you want the jeans to be completely lightened.
Fabric paint is a great way to add fun color and design. Alternatively you can use Rit Dye to add a nice tint to lightened denim.
I absolutely love how they came out. You can use theses simply tricks to create all kinds of looks. Have you customized jeans before? Let me know how they turned out.
Thanks for hanging out today!
XO Terreana
Like DIY projects? Check out this post!