How to make ripped jeans with your own hands

Author: Varya Shopolenko January 09, 2019

Category: Fashion

Ripped jeans continue their victorious march around the world, conquering everyone on their way: women and men, businesswomen and DIY lovers, show business stars and schoolgirls...

Everything is torn: flared jeans, skinny jeans, old-school banana jeans, boyfriend jeans - the fashion trend knows no limits!

Today, frayed and torn jeans are presented in the clothing lines of the most famous and most popular brands, and on the Internet they even offer to rip jeans to order (I, for example, found a whole group of ripped jeans fans on social networks), but we suggest you arrange your own fashion reprisal jeans!

How to tear jeans so that they look beautiful and don’t fall apart? What holes in jeans visually spoil your figure? How to make scuffs on jeans? If jeans are torn or frayed during wear, how can you stylishly revive them? What else can you do to upgrade ripped jeans? We have collected the most interesting ideas for you and, of course, many, many photos.

Correct workpiece style

Before we move on directly to the process, let’s go through our wardrobe in search of exactly the thing that is ideal for experimentation.

Cross regular fit jeans off your list. Such wardrobe elements will look old-fashioned, and holes in the fabric will seem like the result of an unfortunate fall.
Stretch pants will also be unsuccessful. The stretchy material will not physically produce beautiful cuts, and the holes will resemble arrows on nylon tights.
Very thick fabric will make the process of turning pants into a fashion item quite labor-intensive.

Prints, embroideries and designs, as well as bright patterns look interesting, but additional elements overload the overall composition.
Ideal candidates for transformation are narrow or wide pants, like boyfriend pants. These trousers for young people perfectly withstand all the “bullying” of themselves, without turning into the clothes of a homeless tramp.

Whitening denim

The latest fashion is jeans with streaks of color and bleached in various parts. To lighten the usual shade of the material, it must first be boiled with a small amount of bleach.

You can also lighten only some areas, for example, the abrasions themselves. To do this, dilute the bleach with a small amount of water and apply it to the denim using a cotton sponge or sponge for 10-15 minutes. After this, this composition must be washed off under running water, and the jeans are washed once again.

Fashion tips for creating holey pants

Most people try to make cuts at the knees, but you can tear the fabric anywhere.

If you make the cut slightly above the knee, the hole will not get wider and larger each time you bend the knee.
Cuts that are too high expose the underwear. Men should watch this especially closely.

If you wash your trousers immediately after decorating, you will loosen the threads even more, so the trousers will look even more frayed.
Incisions that are close to the seams can cause the latter to come apart.
You can pull out single fibers with extreme precision using a sewing needle.
If instead of cardboard you put a piece of brick in your pant leg, you will significantly speed up the process of washing the fabric.

Which color is better?

Current fashion has made it possible to have not only blue or light blue jeans, but also any other shade. In this regard, many people have a question about whether the color of trousers is decisive when making holes in them.

There are some points to note. Actually, the color of jeans doesn't really affect the appearance of the holes made on them. Another thing is that colored trousers are sometimes not jeans at all, but are only called that by their owners out of habit. To form a beautiful flaw on trousers, the density and structure of the fabric are important, and therefore material with thin fibers will not be suitable.

When it comes to colored mid-weight jeans, small slits at the knees with minimal fringing and minor fraying will look great on them.

Also, some are concerned about the question of how to tear black jeans at the knees. In fact, making beautiful holes on black trousers is no different from similar work with blue or light blue ones.

Creating abrasions on trouser fabric

To make fashionable scuffs on jeans yourself, you need to have the following tools on hand:

pants directly;
sandpaper and block;
a piece of pumice;
grater;
small hard board.

Step-by-step fashionable decor is carried out according to the following scheme:

Mark the selected area for decoration and mark it with chalk or soap.
Take a piece of wood and put it inside your trouser leg under the place where the wear will be in the future.
We proceed to the main stage - the intended place is rubbed using the selected device. Do not rub with force, because in the place of supposed fashionable wear and tear you may end up with an unnecessary hole.
A pumice stone and a trowel will help in obtaining a worn finish with fluffy fringe along the edges. This softens the image and at the same time gives it some audacity. Using an emery block or paper you will create designer wear.
At the decorating stage, decorate the scuff with rhinestones, rivets or paper clips.

Required Tools

Knowing how to tear jeans beautifully with your own hands, you can diversify your usual wardrobe without additional expenses. But you should approach this task responsibly so that the results of your efforts will pleasantly surprise others. Before you begin, make sure you have the following tools:

Ordinary scissors - if you have experience in making jeans with slits with your own hands, you can achieve excellent results using scissors. If you are starting this kind of work for the first time, it is better to buy a well-sharpened stationery knife. It will be somewhat more convenient to work with such a tool.
Ideally, a narrow board; in its absence, a strip of high-density cardboard. The product should be narrow enough to fit inside a trouser leg. It will act as a reliable obstacle that prevents the other half of the trouser leg from being cut through.
Clothes brush with stiff bristles. If you don't have one, an old toothbrush or a wide-toothed comb will do.
To make complex cuts, you need a nail file, fine sandpaper or pumice. These items help to make original decorative cuts, process their edges and create the effect of aged denim.
Denim pants - this could be an old model from a fashionista's wardrobe that she is bored with. You can also decorate brand new classic jeans in the desired size with slits.

You can look fashionable in denim clothes without significant material costs if you use the usual tools to create torn decor on the product. But you shouldn’t mindlessly cut denim. Select several photo options with torn jeans, which will allow you to sketch out a diagram of future cuts on your model.

Hole jeans with "Noodle" effect

As for holes, their creation is more labor-intensive. The following tools will help you create ripped jeans with your own hands:

a piece of plywood;
stationery knife or blade;
eyebrow tweezers or any other;
scissors;
interlining.

You can make a masterpiece out of jeans for yourself using the following scheme:

Any denim pants are woven using colored longitudinal and white transverse fibers. Before the procedure, fix a piece of plywood inside the leg.
Using a blade or pocketknife, make two cuts along the cross grain at a distance of 3-4 cm.
Take scissors or tweezers, use them to carefully pick up and pull out the white threads along the edges. Use caution and patience.
After this, using the same tweezers between the cuts, pull out all the blue threads that are located perpendicular to the bottom ones. Initially, pull one thread at a time, at the end of the manipulation you can pull it out in a bunch.
Fix the edges of the resulting hole from the inside with non-woven fabric to avoid losing the shape of the product.
It is interesting to make a model with numerous long cuts that are free of blue threads.

You can decorate the pants by fixing lace or bright pieces of fabric on the reverse side; this will add audacity and attract attention to their owner.

Marking

Trying on jeans will help determine the locations for future slits. Put the product on and mark the fabric with chalk. The sizes of the holes can vary: from microscopic to solid. The more slits are placed on denim pants, the more informal they will look.

After organizing the markings, you need to hang the denim pants on hangers and look at them from a distance. This will allow you to evaluate what effect will be obtained after further processing of the denim.

Decor of torn jeans using the “Grunge” method

Ripped jeans at home in this style will decorate both men's and women's trousers.

To decorate the trousers yourself, we will need:

small board or plywood;
scissors;
stationery knife;
a piece of pumice.

A step-by-step diagram of how to make jeans ripped consists of the following steps:

Secure plywood or board under the desired area inside the trouser leg.
Make 6-9 slits along the cross grain, about half the length of the pant leg.
It’s better to use a stationery knife, because only with its help you will achieve the effect of maximum negligence. You can make slits of different lengths.
After this, rub the holes with your hands and pull out a few blue fibers from them.
Process the bottom of the trousers. Trim the edge, and rub the resulting edge with a piece of pumice to a careless, disheveled look.
In the same way, process the cuts on the pockets and belt to completely enhance the item, create integrity and completeness of the image.

How to make shorts or breeches from regular jeans

An easy way to update old jeans is to cut them down to shorts or breeches. In this case, you need to outline the height of the future product and break it along the transverse thread. If the shorts are intended to be made without further processing, but with torn edges, then no allowances will be required. They are necessary if, according to the model, a gate is required. For this design, add 3-7 cm to the desired length and trim off the excess. This process will look like this step by step:

Lay the finished jeans out on a flat surface without folds.
Mark with chalk or a pencil the place where the excess length will be trimmed.
We tear off the jeans along the line with our hands or with scissors.
Additionally, we make holes or abrasions (optional), taking into account that the color of the longitudinal thread will be lighter than the main shade of the trousers.
Fold the edge or leave it torn. Ready!

"Cut knees" on black jeggings

Many jeans fans will have a new item in their wardrobe in 2022, among noodles and other shabby pants - black jeggings with slits at the knees. Buying a trendy item in a store is expensive, but creating such fashionable trousers with your own hands can be as easy as shelling pears at maximum cost.

The action plan is as follows:

Put on your trousers and mark the location of the future cut with a piece of soap.
Take off the item and put cardboard or a board in the trouser leg.
Use a utility knife to cut the fabric using sharp movements along the marked line.
Straighten the cut and use your fingers to pull out the excess threads.

We tear beautifully - option 2

We mark the area of the future hole and make several horizontal slits with a stationery knife at intervals of no more than 1 cm. Next, use the tip of nail scissors to separate the white threads, working carefully so as not to tear them.

All that remains is to use a stationery knife to scrape off the small scraps of blue vertical threads - this is done quite easily. Upon completion of work, clean the hole and the entire surrounding area with a vacuum cleaner.

Secrets to creating the right holes in your knees

Torn knees have not gone out of fashion for decades now. There is a certain specificity in creating an image, because it’s no secret that in such popular places the fabric unravels instantly. We advise you to use a trick and follow a certain algorithm.

Put on your pants. Place a small dot in the middle of the knee with chalk or soap.
Mark the future hole in the shape of an eye, the center of which will be that same point. Carefully cut along the outline.
Process the edges using a special technique. Treat them with a nail file or sandpaper. Wet the edges and roll them up and down a little, securing with pins. Let them dry.
Use a grater to create abrasions on the remaining part of the knee.
This shape will allow the cut to maintain its shape longer.

As you have already seen, creating a beautiful designer item is easy and simple with your own hands. Handmade, made according to an individual project, will make your look fashionable and unique.

We outline a work plan

First, let's decide on the number of holes and their location. Equally important will be the size of each hole, as well as its type.

It could be:

through hole - a piece of arbitrarily shaped fabric simply cut from jeans;
a hole is not such an obvious hole; horizontal threads remain in the hole, which play the role of “filler” of the hole;
fraying is a frayed area framed by small fringe, which is not essentially a hole; such jeans can be worn comfortably even in windy weather.

And now the video

Cut-up jeans models have been on the fashion Olympus for several seasons now.

It looks extremely stylish and impressive. You can immediately buy cut or torn jeans, but you can make the decor yourself.

First you need to outline the places where future cuts will be placed. Remember that this decor will be the main accent, so it should be done beautifully and neatly. You should not ignore the preparation process, the future appearance of your jeans depends on it.