How to Put Holes in Your Jeans
The style of distressed, ripped jeans with holes in them is an enduringly popular look that transcends generations. The look is achieved by wearing your jeans for many years until they become naturally worn-in, purchasing "pre-distressed" jeans or making your own holes. If you choose to distress your own jeans it means you can customize the look according to your personal taste. If you simply cut holes in your jeans with scissors they will not look as if they occurred naturally. You can make holes in jeans that appear to have been created by years of wear and tear. Does this Spark an idea?
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Take a pencil and draw horizontal lines on the jeans where you want to make holes. For a naturally worn look, place the holes in places where jeans receive the most wear-and-tear, like the knees, fronts of the thighs and the backs of the ankles. You can wear the jeans and have a friend draw the pencil marks, or find a picture of worn jeans that you like and copy them.
-
2
Spread the jeans in front of you on a flat surface. Find the pencil mark indicating the first hole you wish to make. Take the point of the seam ripper or one side of the open scissors and gently pick at the fabric in the center of the pencil line. Draw up one or two individual weft (horizontal) threads and cut them.
-
-
3
Hold the area of fabric around the pencil line taut and rub the area with sandpaper. Press down quite hard and rub the denim with short back-and-forth motions. You should see the loosened threads fraying and the surface of the denim becoming worn.
-
4
Use the seam ripper or scissors again and pick at some more of the threads around the pencil line. Draw a few threads up and cut them. Continue rubbing with the sandpaper and picking at the threads until a small hole develops.
-
5
Use your fingers to make the small hole larger. Don't force the denim to tear in a certain direction, just tug at the hole and it should naturally rip horizontally. Remember that the hole will get larger over time as you wear the jeans, so stop ripping when the hole is still slightly smaller than you want it to be.
-
6
Distress the fabric around the edges of the hole by rubbing it with sandpaper again, and picking and cutting more loose threads around the hole. You can pull the longer loose threads off the jeans or leave them in place, depending on the look you want.
-
7
Repeat Steps 2 to 6 to make holes at all the other pencil marks on the jeans.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
If you don't have a seam ripper, use the sharpest pointed scissors you can find.
For an extra distressed look, use a cheese grater in addition to sandpaper to make "worn" patches on the jeans. Splash them with bleach or paint or rip some of the seams in the pockets.
For a more subtle look, be gentle with the sandpaper and just make small holes on or below the knees. The holes will naturally become more "worn" over time.
