I’ve noticed recently that more and more companies are playing with the surface treatment of their jeans. Bleach treatments in particular can make unique urban prints that are easy and inexpensive to do yourself. Bleach allows you to take an uninspiring pair jeans from Goodwill and turn them into one-of-a-kind, high-end denim over night.
What You Need:
- Jeans from Goodwill. You might get two pairs, one to use as a test, and one that fits well, that you will keep
- bleach
- rubber bands
- gloves
The trick with jeans is that they all react a little differently to bleach. Thin, lower-end jeans will bleach more quickly. Heavy, high-quality jeans will take longer (possibly overnight). I found this pair of Levi’s at Goodwill, and because they're pretty high quality, it took bleaching them overnight to achieve these results.
You will first want to soak your jeans in water (though you may try bleaching them dry- I expect the results would be more dramatic). To make all over patterns you can twist each leg tightly and use rubber bands to hold the twists in place. The twisting protects areas of the jeans from bleach that is what yields high contrast patterns (with very dark, unbleached areas, and white fully-bleached areas).
Once your jeans are twisted, put on old clothes that you don’t mind damaging (you might pick up a t-shirt from Goodwill for this, when you buy your jeans). Next, wearing rubber gloves, mix up a bleach solution (enough to cover your jeans) with at most one part bleach to one part hot water (bleach can eat through the fibers of your clothing, so it's better to dilute the concentration). You will not notice much difference for the first few hours. Though its worth checking the progress every hour to see how your pair of jeans react. If you want more specific control you can use a bleach pen to draw designs directly onto your jeans.
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Results after 15 hours: |
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Results after 3 hours:
Once you see the bleach results you like, remove your jeans from the bleach water (use rubber GLOVES!) rinse them several times and throw them into the wash (you can add white towels or other items that could use a little bleaching). I recommend washing with a fabric softener, because it will help remove the bleach smell.
