It was a day like any other day until my shoe untied. I kneeled down to tie the laces and *rrrriiiiiiipppppp*… there was now a gaping hole in the knee of one of my favorite pairs of jeans 🙁
Rather than cry over my newly torn Paige Denim jeans (scored from Buffalo Exchange a few years ago NEW for just $14!), I took to them with a razor, giving them a simple, natural-looking distressing. Here’s what I did:
First off, you’ll need a sharp razor or straight-edge to make the (careful!) slits, a piece of cardboard that can fit inside your pant legs, and of course, a pair of jeans (you can see the aforementioned rip in the knee *tears*). I also recommend keeping a pair of scissors handy for the hems.
Start by putting on your jeans and using a pencil mark at your knee approximately where the slits should go. Slip the piece of cardboard into your pant legs, under where you will be cutting so as to not cut the back leg of the jeans. Using your razor, make several slits left-to-right of various lengths at the knee. I kept my slits to less than ten, but go as crazy as you’d like depending on how broken in you’d like your jeans to look.
Keeping your cardboard piece in place inside the jeans behind where you’ll be slicing, place cuts on the jeans where they would naturally start wearing– pockets, waistband, belt loops, etc. I did the same with the back pockets. You can also rub a piece of gritty sandpaper on edges and your cuts to get that lived-in look.
Do the same with the back hems (can also use scissors to cut and fray bottoms). Once finished slicing and fraying, wash and dry jeans as normal which will make the fraying more pronounced. I recommend washing and drying at least twice to get natural looking fray.
Have fun!
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