A pic of my thrifted Gap jeans
I used an old pair of shorts as a template to cut the right length for my shorts. Make sure you keep the crotch area seams together, this keeps the back a little bit longer for room in the butt. The back part will usually we taller than the front.
So I researched on the many ways on how to distress denim. I had all the tools...an exacto knife, tweasers, sandpaper, and a cheese grater. After trying various methods, I found that the cheese grater worked the best for me, and thats all I really needed. The grater was able to slowly pull away the layer of denim to show the threads that I really wanted. I did have quite a mess with all the fuzz flying but it gave the perfect effect. I basically just scrubbed the heck out of the jeans in all the places I wanted distressing. I did the pockets and fly area too.
Here is a pic of the cheese grater I bought at the Dollar Tree.
Before and after pic of my DIY
I also asked my thrifty friend Andrea (@keepinitthrifty) to collaborate on this DIY. I was curious to see what she would come up with. She found a vintage pair of high-waisted levi jeans at her goodwill.
She cut hers about 2 inches below the inseam, leaving enough room so they could be cuffed. She distressed hers by cutting a series of slits...about 5 or so on the pockets. (Make sure you dont cut through the pocket itself.) She also used a cheese grater to go over the slits to give them a rough look and to show more threads. Wash and then dry.
