Today I am actually on the road again, headed back to Phoenix. But to keep you all busy while I am travelling I have a fun tutorial on distressing and making cut-off jeans! Are you ready for some fun and creativity?
First things first you must find an old pair of jeans that Everytime Me My Girlfriend Go Out Her Ex Bullies Us fit well in the waist. I found this great pair of high waisted jeans at a thrift store, so I was excited to use them.
Get a well fitting pair of shorts and line them up on your jeans to cut. Make sure the line up the seam on the backside. Since my cutoffs were a high waisted the top did not line up, so make sure you are measuring from the same spot. In order to make sure you are cutting the leg the same length, line up the crotch seam in both pairs of pants.
With either chalk or a pen, mark a dotted line on the pant leg. Depending on what kind of edge you are wanting you may want to mark the line slightly below the line of your shorts. That will allow extra length for fraying or if you want to roll them up at all. It is always better to start longer and be able to shorten them later. If it helps you can lay a ruler down over the edge of your shorts to help mark the line. Also if the shorts you are using for measuring are not angled slightly up toward the outside of the leg, you can add the angle for a more flattering cut.
Now there are many ways to get different looks for your cutoffs. For my cutoffs, I cut through the side seam and an additional 1/2 inch to get the cut started. 
Then very carefully ripped the remaining leg off. It is easier to do one side and then the other.
The ripping creates a more natural tearing of the fibers for the edge, but you can definitely use your scissors and cut the entire way as well.
Once you have the first leg finished, fold the pants in half so that the cut leg is on top. Then use that cut leg as your line to measure and draw your dotted line on the remaining leg. Then use the same technique you used on the previous leg to tear/or cut the leg off.
Now your pants should look like shorts! If you are ripping, it may not have ripped completely evenly, mine did not, so I had to use the scissors to even them out a bit.
Now if you want to add more a distressed look, you can use your scissors to cut a small slit in the desired location.
To begin the fraying process on the slit you just cut, grab a piece of sandpaper and gently rub in back and forth across the raw edge.
This will help start the fraying by loosening the fibers. The real fraying will happen after you wash and dry the jeans a couple times.
You can use this same technique with the sandpaper on the hem as well, especially on the areas where you used the scissors.
Once you are done with your distressing, throw the shorts in the wash to get those jeans unravelin’. I went for a lightly distressed look. You can always go back and distress more.
And there you have it. The finished product. And please don’t judge the modeling. Definitely don’t have that gene.
I’m actually thinking of dying these shorts. What do you think? Should I dye them a minty green or a corally pink like these from free people.
