Destroying Denim DIY ideas for old jeans and more

At a visit to the Levi Store on Union Square in San Francisco, we discovered there custom jeans shop downstairs. You can pay them to destroy or distress a pair of jeans that you buy there at the shop from $50 on up plus the costs of the decorations. One square inch of distressing with a patch behind it is $20!! They only do squares and rectangles too. We decided to start doing our own and show our readers how in the process.
First we took some old jeans of Audrey's and washed them in a bleach load with about a 30 minute soak to lighten them. We next cut them off and dyed them in Teal RIT powered dye in the washing machine. Adding half a cup of table salt helps hold the color. We laid them out flat to dry and decide on our design. You can see they are still obviously denim but with an aqua undertone and the fraying on the legs is aqua colored.

We went through our scraps for matching fabrics and decided on a star and moon design theme. Using a blue wash out marker, I traced the star on one leg of the shorts on the top.

I cut out a square of fabric for the lining and laid it out over the star to make sure it was the correct size with about an inch to spare all the way around. This piece of fabric must be basted to the BACK of the shorts but sewn through the top.

When you are done, stitch by machine or by hand on the pattern you drew on the front. It really depends on what you want it to look like or if the location is difficult to get under your needle on a sewing machine, I recommend you hand stitch it with embroidery floss or a contrasting color.

Now to cut out the design so that the applique or patch fabric will show, you must reach in from under the top and hold the piece of patched fabric out a little and carefully cut a slit into the design center on the front. After that you can use a sharp pair of scissors and carefully trim the shape leaving about 1/4 inch of fabric around the stitching. This will naturally fray when washed but the patch will remain.

Wash out the blue marker lines and now you can paint or add other embellishments. Audrey wanted a little sparkly paint in blue tones.We used Jaquard fabric paints in teal and blue. We added a light line around each shape and a few dots of color. The finished product was heat set with an iron. The front pockets got just a small line of paint along the seems.

We also painted in the decorative stitching lines on the back pockets and added one more moon. I had to had stitch this moon because there was no way it was going on my machine. I also had to cut and sew right through part of the paint but the Jaquard paints are very pliable.

The moon on the back added a little interest and pulled the look together without too much destressing of the shorts.

Her finished jeans shorts are just the right length for her and paired up well with her striped aqua tights and arm warmers purchased on www.welovecolors.com. Our favorite sock shop.