Refashion: Jeans

I bought these jeans from a local secondhand clothing store because I love the high, snug waist. I hate the boring colour though.

Time to work some magic.

So, to remedy that, I first hung the jeans in the shower and doused them in water

then mixed some bleach and water (1/3 water, 2/3 bleach) in an old spray bottle

and sprayed the jeans all over.

I spent a few hours spraying them occasionally without seeing much result. It’s actually tricky to tell what’s going on when the jeans are still wet, but in retrospect, it was certainly doing something. However, after finally losing my patience, I starting throwing undiluted bleach at the jeans and saw instant results! Notice the colour running off them here?

The bleach was then rinsed off and the jeans were soaked briefly in a vinegar/water mix (about 500ml vinegar in a bucket of water) to stop the bleaching process. Then I threw the jeans in the washing machine and washed as usual.

Once clean and dry, I altered the legs a little, sewing them in on the sides below the knee to give them a nicer fit.

Here’s the end result:

I even got whistled at by a car load of guys, despite the fact I had our two preschoolers in tow. As much as I hate that (objectification of women, blah, blah. It makes me angry, let’s not go there), I’m pretty sure the boring jeans I started with had never received that kind of praise before!