Fabulously frayed denim never goes out of style and is ridiculously simple to achieve with the right repurposed tool:
Here’s my groovy method (& secret tool) for easily giving your thrifted jeans that wonderfully worn out DIY Destroyed Distressed Denim look –
Grab your denim victim, a piece of wood or thick cardboard, a razor knife, chalk & a brilliant 3-way bbq brush. This fab little cleaning tool has all of the textures needed to create natural looking wear & tear: a stiff scrubber, a sharp scraper and marvelous metallic bristles!
Put on your jeans (or other denim gear) and mark where you’d like the destruction to take place. I marked where my jeans naturally wear out: at the knees and under the right front pocket where I always end up toting munchkin collected items.
Pop the wood (or cardboard) in between the front & back layer of denim and grab the razor knife.
Slice on through.
Grab the bbq brush and rub it across the cuts and you’ll have a wickedly instant, worn out fray!
Pop the wood into a pocket and run the razor knife over the hem.
Use the scrubber pad part of the bbq brush for a groovy tattered edge.
Short slashes at the pocket also gives a cool well-worn look.
Once you’re happy with your destruction, toss the denim into a 3 parts water/1 part bleach mixture to fade the colour and then wash and dry as usual.
Before bleaching these jeans were black – Cool beans, man!
Create your own textured t-shirt with my easy video DIY:
The perfect outfit for a mini zipline with the kiddo:
I recently thrifted a rather frumpy looking below-the-knee denim skirt, which keeps going back on the pile as I wasn’t sure what to do with the hem. I going to try this!
Do you have a tutorial for making the t-shirt yarn, or is it just cutting it into strips? How do you get it so neat?
This technique would be awesome on a skirt!
Here’s my simple oldie but goodie method for creating the t-shirt yarn + another funky embellishing how-to: https://awesomesauceasshattery.com/2011/11/19/the-punkadelic-pipeline-technique/
love seeing this! When I see jeans that look exactly like this in the stores for $200 it blows me away-pay that much for holes? not me. Great tutorial!
Yep, it’s insane what people will pay for “cool” destruction…especially when it’s sooooo easy to do yourself for free! 😉