09 January 2012

Gradient dyed Jeans DIY


Too Hippie for you? Do you see how cool these jeans are? They've been in my dreams for months now and I finally acted on it. I have many ideas with this. Black jeans with white? white jeans with color? Or light blue jeans with Purple. Here's where I start.

Needed:
Lighter Jeans
Fabric dye
Bucket
Plastic gloves

Things to know:
- The cheap Walmart brand of fabric dye (the powders) doesn't work as well.
- Make sure your gradient is straight across the top and even on both leg.
- Even if they look like the color you want them after a few minutes of dying, remember after being washed, the color will fade (Mine above have already been washed)
- Don't wash your freshly dyed jeans with other clothes for the first several times. Unless you want everything a slight shade of your color.
- Dark blue denim probably wont give you the same affect

\\ Find a safe place to set up and get to reading the directions on your fabric dye. I chose my kitchen sink, and a bucket. Gather yo jeans and dye!

\\ Once you have filled up your bucket/sink with the appropriate temperature of water and number of gallons, wet your jeans as high as you want to dye them.

\\ Read your directions and add the dye. Now dip your jeans in as far as you want the dye to go up. After a couple seconds, pull them out several more inches so the bottoms can be darker than the top. You may keep pulling more out and soaking it back in to make the gradient more even. I did this for about 30 minutes. Just make sure you never leave it all the way in too long! When your finished, follow washing directions on your dye.
Then after all that hassle of washing/drying is over, you have a new pair of jeans that may look something like this. During this process, I cleaned off my jean rack and I now have piles of jeans sitting around that no longer fit me, or I just no longer wear. My goal is to come up with something, anything that I can make out of them. Something that- well let's be honest- doesn't look tacky like a jean shorts bag or a jean pocket cellphone holder. I'm workin on it!
For now, enjoy your Monday!

6 comments:

  1. Samantha SchreinerMarch 15, 2012 at 8:52 PM

    Next time I'm home, I will!

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  2. Creative enough for me! I think I'm going to gather pictures of cute jean recycling ideas, would you take a photo of yours?

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  3. I love this! I don't know if I could pull off gradient dyed jeans, but these are so adorable!!

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  4. Samantha SchreinerMarch 15, 2012 at 8:53 PM

    I cut up some old jeans (they were different shades) into 4 or 5 inch squares, & made throw pillows with them. The jean patchwork was the front of my pillows & I had a pretty floral fabric as the back. It's not super creative, but it's an idea.

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  5. Always too happy to hear from you. Thank you!

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  6. Always impressed, sister girl. The top photo is stunning.

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