Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Back to Where the Peaches Grow

I'm officially back in Savannah. Even though it's for an undecided amount of time I'm happy to be back. I'm excited to see how these next few months play out and even more excited about what's to come with the start of this upcoming year.


The night before heading back I got together with a good friend to take some pictures. It was a pretty spur of the moment idea and being in Southwest Florida we naturally decided to go to beach. The sunset wasn't much and we got there a little late but we had so much fun anyways. Here's a couple shots. 



It was super good to see you J Dang, as always.


And now, like I promised, a little insight into making dyed cut offs..
 All you really need is a couple hours, some patience, and about 15 bucks. 

The first step in the process is to find a pair of high waisted jeans. Goodwills and Salvation Armies are full of them, and they're generally only five dollars, you just have to have the patience to dig a little. There's hundreds of brands out there but a few that seem to work the best are Levi and Jordache. I highly highly recommend trying them on, sizing between brands tends to be different and sizing has changed over the years, so don't get upset if the jeans that fit you best are marked two sizes bigger than what you usually wear. 

Once you get home with your jeans use a pair of fabric scissors to cut them to shorts. I usually give them about a two and a half inch inseam, enough room to fray the bottom without your butt cheeks hanging out. I also usually cut them at a slight angle, making the inseam about a quarter of an inch longer than the outside edge of the shorts. 

Next thing you'll need is an x-acto knife. I use the ones with the snap-off blades that come all the way out of the knife, I'm probably not describing them very well so here's where you can find them. Once you've got that, completely remove the blade from the knife and just scratch scratch scratch your little heart out. This is where the patience factor comes in again, the more time you spend thinning the denim to make the tears the happier you'll be later.



Once you've got your shorts all torn up it's time to bleach them. It's hard for the dye to really take to the denim and for the color to be exactly what's shown on it's packaging without the shorts being bleached first. So just let them sit in a little bleach to take them
from this, 



to this.


The shorts I was wearing in the last post were just made with bleach, no dye involved, but you can take them up a notch with a little dye. The possibilities are endless with these and that what makes them so much fun. 

Once your shorts turn white make sure you rinse them thoroughly before you try to dye them. Rit dye is my personal favorite. There's ton of colors and you can even mix colors to get exactly the shade you want. You can get Rit dye at JoAnn's Fabric or most any other craft store. Then just follow the dying instructions stated on the packaging and you're all set. 


 To get more of an ombre affect rather than just a solid dip dye you can lower the shorts into the dye a little at a time. About 15 minutes per "level". While the shorts are in each "level" I like to splash a little dye higher than the water line to make the transition more fluid. 



Then just wash them and they're ready to wear. Also, wash these babies by themselves for the first couple times so they don't bleed onto anything else! 


This song alway puts me in such a good mood, it's the best while making these. Enjoy! 



2 comments:

  1. beautiful photos! your are so pretty, love your shorts so much!

    xoxo
    www.mycherrygum.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're gorgeous and I love dip dying shorts ;)

    ReplyDelete