What Is Ripped Jeans?
Take your regular jeans and add a few rips, shreds, scrapes, frays, and fades to them. You have yourself ripped/distressed jeans. We cannot point to who started it, but it was part of the grunge fashion movement, but now they have practically taken over. Jeans, shorts, jackets, and you name it — they are all ripped!
What Are Distressed Jeans?
Ripped, distressed, or torn — one way or the other, they all mean the same. Another thing you can do to make them distressed is to take darker shade jeans and bleach or sandpaper them to fade them out; to make them seem worn out or distressed. Yes, we are a generation that pays for stuff like this. So don’t get into this loop. Take this DIY ripped jeans project.
How To Make A Ripped Jeans – DIY Step By Step Tutorial
Wondering how to make your own ripped jeans at home? Making ripped jeans is no rocket science. It’s something that you can do with stuff you already have at home. Just needs a teeny bit of planning, patience, and practice.
1. Select A Jeans Or Shorts
Even before you start the process, think of the jeans you could use for this DIY process. Preferably something old but fits you well (or not). If you are a beginner, then see if you have jeans you already cut into shorts or one that you don’t mind if it goes wrong, just in case. [ Read: Types Of Jeans – Guide ]
2. Bring All The Supplies You Will Need
Depending on whatever you plan to do with your jeans, you will need to get your supplies in place just so that you do not run to the convenient store mid-way and get distracted. Here’s what you will need.
For holes, shreds (one or all of them) — Fabric scissors, or utility cutter knife. For removing threads — tweezers. For scrape and frays — razor or scissors. For a distressed look — pumice stone or sandpaper. For marking — marker, tailor’s chalk, or just a pen.
3. Start Marking To Rip/Distress Them
The most important step in the process is a place where most of us (beginners) screw up. Decide what you want to do with your jeans and then mark it clearly. It is just an efficient way of doing it. If you are not sure how much is acceptable and where to do what, scroll through to find out. We are about to discuss that.
4. Start Ripping (Distressing)
At this point, you already know what you want to do, and the markup is done. Just start ripping it off or distressing it.
5. Finishing Touches
You are practically done; just ensure it’s not sloppy and the finished product looks neatly done.
5 Ways To Make Ripped/Distress Jeans
1. Remove The Threads
Your jeans basically have white threads horizontally and blue threads vertically. I was clueless about this up until the point I did this exercise. So, to get this distressed striped look, you have to start tweezing out the vertical blue threads of the patch you marked earlier. As a first-timer, removing the first few threads will be the hardest, but it will loosen up as you progress, and it gets much easier. Click here to watch the video tutorial.
2. Fray The Edges
Fraying the edges is another fun way to distress your jeans. If you are not very experimental, this is a good place to start. It is fashionable, yet not over the top. Cut the end of the jeans or your shorts slightly and start removing threads with a tweezer. You could also scrape the edges off with a razor or sandpaper. “Fraying the edges is a good way to give your jeans a wild and trendy look, especially if you are no longer in your teens,” says personal stylist Paola Farina. Click here to watch the video tutorial. [ Read: What To Wear With White Jeans ]
3. Fray The Pockets
Frayed pockets are subtle and an interesting way to distress your jeans. It adds extra spunk and makes it cool. Just take off the top layer of the pocket without going too deep. Then, either scrape the surface with a razor or sandpaper or just remove some threads with tweezers. Click here to watch the video tutorial.
4. Make Holes
Making holes to distress your jeans is also a style that is in vogue right now. As a beginner, try smaller holes, or if you want to try bigger ones, try them closer to the pocket so that you are still covered with the pocket cloth if the hole gets big or awkward. If you are confident, by all means, do it. Cut off the portion with scissors and then fray the edges, or you could just remove threads with a tweezer. Click here to watch the video tutorial. [ Read: How To Wear Boyfriend Jeans ]
5. Scrape Or Bleach Off
Add subtle touches to distress your jeans with a combination of other methods or just as a stand-alone. Either way is totally fine. You could add bleach for a faded look or take a pumice stone, sandpaper, or even steel wool and scrape off the parts of the jeans on which you want the faded look. Click here to watch the video tutorial.
Where And How To Manage A Ripped Jeans
Now that you have learned how to scrape, shred, and drill holes into your jeans, let’s go over a few things you should know.It is also important to understand how to strike a balance without actually ripping the jeans apart or making them look like rags. Also, know the best placement for each of these.
Unless you prefer to go all out, overdoing the distressed look can leave a bad aftertaste. So, according to the fashion police, the two-and-a-half rule (give or take) looks and works best. So, two holes, two shreds, and a scrape is a good starting point. Feel free to tweak it, but this is a good reference for amateurs.
Shreds look best in the thigh region, and a couple of inches long is good.
Holes usually start on the knee and go up two inches (for obvious reasons). Don’t go overboard with the holes; keep the length to an inch and only as wide as your leg because they show more skin when you sit. Plus, horizontal ones are better.
Scrapes near or above the thigh are great.
[ Read: 9 Different Types Of Jeans For Women– The Style Guide ] How do you rip jeans without tweezers? You can use a razor or scissors to scrape the jeans. Pumice or sandpaper can also be used to create a distressed look. It can also be done manually by marking and ripping the jeans carefully. Is it OK to wear ripped jeans to school? No, ripped jeans are not allowed in many schools. They are not suitable for school attire and may be considered inappropriate in many institutions.
