DIY Bleached, Frayed and Studded Shorts (Tutorial)

Hello Everyone.

Today I would like to show you step by step how to make those shorts you see at department stores for WAY TOO MUCH $$$.  I have been dying to do this tutorial for a while but honestly… I have never done anything like this myself. You can pair this tutorial with my fringed t-shirt tutorial to help you to achieve the summer bombshell look! The great thing about this DIY project is you can:

1. Be a beginner (this isn’t rocket science, I should know because it was my first time too)

2. Be as creative as you want ( They are all one of a kind )

3. Even if you mess up it may not be noticeable and perhaps may turn out pretty neat. ( no one is perfect)

Things you need:

• Scissors
• A safety pin
• Bleach (optional)
• A bucket or something to pour the bleach into (optional, you may prefer to not bleach)
• clothes pins (again you may not want to bleach so optional)
• One pair of jeans you don’t care about (any color)
• Studs, any kind you want (optional)

Follow the jump to find out how to make my DIY shorts!

Step one: I cut my pants evenly just a little higher than Capri’s so that way I have plenty of room to mess up.  

Step two: Bleaching! Leave shorts in bleach for as long as you like. I left mine in for 2 hrs. Use the clothes pins to hold your shorts up and keep the parts you do not want bleached out.

Step three: I carefully unpinned the shorts and rinsed them in the bath tub. Rinse for at least 5 minutes. Carefully pour bleach VERY slowly down bath tub drain with the water running.

Step five: VERY IMPORTANT! WASH SHORTS! I washed them in the washing machine on warm about 4 to 5 times with soap and fabric softener to get the bleach all the way out. Dry shorts on delicate until fully dried.

(Look how white the bottom got! I also love that the seams are still black lol)

Step six: Cut into shorts! I rounded the bottoms and left the back about an inch longer than the front.

Step seven: Fraying the edges. I forgot to take pictures of the process.  What I did is took a safety pin and a exacto knife and with the exacto knife I ran it along the very edge of the shorts. As the knife was dragged across it began pulling strings down. I used the safety pin to help pull the strings out. Its a bit tricky.

 (Here’s a pic of how they were coming along. This is what you want to achieve)

Step eight: Adding holes. This is optional but I added a hole on the back pocket. I cut a straight slit about an inch across. All you do now is take your safety pin and pull the vertical strings down. Turn the shorts upside down and pull vertical strings down. It should look like this.

Step nine: STUDS!!! I took some studs off of an old belt that I wasn’t using any more but you can get studs at you local punk stores, online (etsy and ebay) or you can go to a thrift store and buy a studded belt and carefully take them off.

( I’ve got the biggest stud of them all)

Step ten: Apply the studs. 

And we are DONE!

My shorts didn’t turn out as great as I wanted them to but I’m still happy with them. You should give it a try too!

Thanks for reading! Enjoy!

xoxo

RAD