How Do I Fade My Jeans?

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Mitra Chester, and I'm here at Deluxe Resale Boutique in Eugene, Oregon, and I'm going to show you some techniques for fading denim jeans. I have a dark pair of jeans here that will expose the techniques a little better. If you want to fade an overall wash of jeans like a couple shades lighter, you can definitely wash them in a bleach bath or with an over the counter color remover, that will do a kind of a overall. If you want fade certain areas there are other techniques you can use. For larger areas you can use sand paper or a pumice stone. This is a 180 grit sand paper, and I'm basically going to scrape it across an area that I want to fade and it will give, basically remove some of the denim. And different fabrics are going to experience these processes a little bit differently, this one works really well for this. With any fading, you definitely want to wash them and dry them. What you're trying to accomplish is the look of washing and drying jeans over and over and over again, so that's another way to just do it subtly is wash them pretty often. But this, as you can see, is lightening up the area, and you can get a larger kind of area if you want. Fading in smaller areas, like along a seam, you can scrape it with a pocket knife or an Exacto knife to expose some of the white under-threads, which will have a fading effect ultimately once it's washed and dried, or just along a small area to create kind of a small faded spot, or like some scratch marks. And depending on the denim and the way that you move the blade, it will have different effects. Done vertically it will create a small faded spot. Done horizontally it will expose these cross-threads and have kind of a snagged effect. But, again, once this is done wash them with soap and it will rinse out the remainder of the dye and achieve a faded look. And that's how you fade your jeans!"