Repurposing (Upcycled) Fashion Clothing: Making Colored Jeans

My daughter Liz has an obsession with colored jeans. She must have had a dozen pairs before the craze even started.  One day, we decided that we were going to make our own pair of colored jeans using an old, ugly pair of dark denim that she had floating in the back of her closet.

The first step is to bleach the jeans.  This was actually a difficult step, or at least time consuming and it made our bathroom smell like a pool.  We finally figured out that if you just left the jeans in the bleach water, it would magically do its stuff.  I used 1/3 bleach to 2/3 water.

After bleaching, make sure to thoroughly rinse with cold water and then wash in your washing machine.

Liz chose petal pink and yellow.  Since it was going to be a two-toned pair of jeans, we needed to do it by hand, and forgo the washing machine.  The water needed to be constantly agitated for about 30 minutes.  We tied the jeans to a curtain rod by a rubber band on one of the belt loops, and swished the one half around the water, occasionally splashing the water onto the middle.

After rinsing that half, now it’s the other half’s turn.

Jeans were rinsed out thoroughly and then washed in the washing machine.  Here’s the final result!

A little of bit of glitter fabric spray, and we’re all set to model it!  Totally rad!

With love,

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