How to Make Ripped Jeans With Ripped Threads Across Using Sandpaper

Courser sandpaper has a lower grit number.

Ripped or frayed jeans give your outfit a distressed look. Jeans with rips can be purchased from retailers, but you can also transform ordinary jeans into a distressed fashion statement without having to pay extra for the holes. A very course sandpaper is suitable for making rips in the jeans. Before you begin, determine where on the jeans to make the rips, because after you start sanding the denim the material will fade and lose its durability.

Things You'll Need

• Ironing board
• Spray bottle
• Water
• 80-grit sandpaper

Instructions

1. Fit the pointy end of the ironing board through a leg of the jeans. The ironing board acts as a hard surface to make it easier for you to sand the denim.

2. Fill a spray bottle with water. Spray the pant leg with water at the spot you want to make the rip. Getting the denim wet helps the threads rip more effectively and efficiently.

3. Rub the spot on the jeans back and forth with the sandpaper. Apply pressure to the sandpaper as you go -- the more pressure you apply the deeper into the fabric the sandpaper will rub.

4. Continue wetting the spot, sanding, wetting the spot and sanding. As you rub, move the sandpaper from left to right, instead of from top to bottom. The reason for this is so that you can create rips that run horizontally to expose the threads. Once you reach the threads that go across, change the rotation of the sanding so that you sand up and down the jeans to rip or "saw" the threads that run across.

Tips & Warnings

• If your jeans are very durable and won't start ripping with the sandpaper, you can use a cheese grater to start the shredding process of the fabric, and then finish the rip with the sandpaper.