DIY The Perfect Boyfriend Jean ~ How To Cut, Fray & Bleach Vintage Distressed Levis 501's

[Music] Welcome to The Dress Up Mom. [Music] I have work and tried a lot of different jeans in my life, but I have never found a pair of jeans that fit me better and that I liked better than classic Levi’s 501s. For whatever reason, the way that body type is, I’m not at all curvy, these sort of unisex pants, just I love and I think fit me well and look well on me. I literally have been wearing 501s since I was in high school, so I love them and I like the older ones better than the newer ones, of course, for whatever reason. So, I’m always looking for a vintage pair of these and I recently was gifted the coolest pair, that I’m going to tell you about. And in this video, I am going to fray them and cut them just a little bit, but try to bleach them and make them a lot lighter. So, that’s what we’re doing in this video. But first, thank you so much for watching, I really appreciate it.

If you are a regular viewer and subscriber, I absolutely love you. If you haven’t subscribed and like what you’re seeing, please do, it’s just the button here, it means the world to me. We are also on all the social media outlets, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter @thedressupmom #thedressupmom. You can watch us there too. So, like I said, I’m always on the lookout for good vintage 501s, I have quite a few that I wear already, but I didn’t have a good sort of baggy, boyfriendy one that was distressed, because I don’t like the way some of the distressing looks, if it’s been distressed on purposed. I’ve had my eye out on that for a long time.

Well, recently a friend of mine gifted me two pair of Levi 501s that were her dads, that he wore beautifully. I mean they are just distressed perfectly. For whatever reason you can’t distress jeans the way that you can naturally, I don’t know how else to put that. But, I just love these and she was so sweet to give them to me. They fit me well, they were a little bit big, so the first thing that I did is I washed them with The Laundress Denim Shampoo which I think is fantastic. I put them in really hot water and I put them on a hot dryer so that they would shrink up a little bit. But I just love, you can see here, this is the way they fit right now, adore them.

Look at this cool distressing. They’re a little bit short for me, or the length is kind of bizarre, so I think I am just going to cut a little bit off of the bottom and fray them. I’ll show you how I do that, just so that they’re not to the ankle, but just a little bit high, like almost a high water because I don’t have pants of that length. Then, what I really want to do, is I want to take these and bleach and turn them almost white. And I have a way that I bleach, which is in the bath tub, I lay them all flat. So, I’m going to show you that and walk you through that whole process and see what happens to these unbelievably cool, cool Levi’s 501s that I really hope I don’t mess up.

We’ll need a pair of really sharp scissors that I use just for fabric, a tape measure, seam ripper, a pen, some Clorox bleach and some Laundress Denim Wash. The first thing I’m going to do is turn these jeans inside out because I want to use the pen and actually mark and draw a straight line across where I’m going to cut them, so that they stay nice and straight. Now, as I showed you, I just want to take a tiny bit off, so I’m going to take an inch, I’m taking my tape measure and I’m putting an inch and I’m going to mark an inch all around with my pen, down the bottom of these jeans on both sides. And then just take and mark a nice straight line that I am going to use to cut. I’m just going to take those nice, sharp fabric cutting scissors and cut that straight line where I marked it along both sides. [Music] Once I finish cutting, I like to line them up, just to make sure that they’re nice and even and are along all sides even, which here they do look good.

So, very happy about that. Now, I’m just going to take my seam ripper and start ripping along the edges along all sides where I just cut. Now, this takes a little bit and you just ripping, ripping, ripping. And the thing about it is, it may not look like you’re doing a whole lot at this point, but trust me, once you get done and wash them, they’re very distressed at the bottom, just by doing this seam ripping. Okay, now I am just turning them right side in or whatever, getting them to the right side. I’m going to take a look and show you here at the bottom how this all turned out after cutting and seam ripping and then we’re going to get ready to take them over and start bleaching. I do my bleaching in the tub where I can lay the jeans flat. So, I’m putting a lot of cold water in here and then a bunch of the bleach, almost half of that thing of bleach.

I put my gloves on and I’m just going to lay these pants, get them really good and soaked into the bleached water. Now, what I do is I take a look at them every hour or so, turn them around on the other side and then get them to wear I like the look of them. They’re going to lighten up a lot once I wash them. It’s now been about three hours, I like the way they look, so I’m going to take them out. I put them in this big plastic garbage bag, just so they don’t drip all around and I’m going to take and wash them with my Laundress Denim Wash. Here is how they turned out. Pretty good. I’m pretty happy with it. Yay! Okay, all finished, here they are bleached and frayed down at the bottom. I do like how it turned out. So, again, I think this length is a little bit better, it’s very distressed on the fraying.

You can see that even if it doesn’t look like it’s as frayed as you think, by the time you wash them and dry them, the fraying comes out. They’re bleached. They’re not quite as light as I would have wanted to get them, but I think it’s because they were already pre-faded and bleached. But, I do like how they lightened up quite a bit and I just do love the fit of them.

They’re a little bit different than the other ones that I have. So, a little bit looser, kind of boyfriend jeans-y with the distressing and down here with the fraying. Another way to wear these is to peg and cuff them, sort of 80s style almost. My son showed me how to do this. So, I’ll show you, it’s a little bit tricky. Not tricky, but you basically need to take the pant leg and smoosh it together like this to peg it, and then you carefully start to roll it up. Now, it’s going to be a little bit tight in this beginning sections of when you’re rolling it up, but you just keep sort of making a small roll and then get it to where you want it and then you can play around with it to make them even and the right sort of distance apart. But that’s another fun way to wear these kinds of jeans as well, so I thought I’d show you that too. That’s how this turned out. Would love to know if you have fun bleaching, fraying, distressing and finding Levi’s 501s and if you’re a big fan of them, like I am.

Thank you again, Christina, so much for the pants, to Christina’s dad for wearing them so well. I appreciate you watching, thank you. Until next time, have fun and dress it up a little. [Music].

As found on Youtube [Music] Welcome to The Dress Up Mom. [Music] I have work and tried a lot of different jeans in my life, but I have never found a pair of jeans that fit me better and that I liked better than classic Levi’s 501s. For whatever reason, the way that body type is, I’m not at all curvy, these sort of unisex pants, just I love and I think fit me well and look well on me. I literally have been wearing 501s since I was in high school, so I love them and I like the older ones better than the newer ones, of course, for whatever reason. So, I’m always looking for a vintage pair of these and I recently was gifted the coolest pair, that I’m going to tell you about. And in this video, I am going to fray them and cut them just a little bit, but try to bleach them and make them a lot lighter. So, that’s what we’re doing in this video. But first, thank you so much for watching, I really appreciate it.

If you are a regular viewer and subscriber, I absolutely love you. If you haven’t subscribed and like what you’re seeing, please do, it’s just the button here, it means the world to me. We are also on all the social media outlets, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter @thedressupmom #thedressupmom. You can watch us there too. So, like I said, I’m always on the lookout for good vintage 501s, I have quite a few that I wear already, but I didn’t have a good sort of baggy, boyfriendy one that was distressed, because I don’t like the way some of the distressing looks, if it’s been distressed on purposed. I’ve had my eye out on that for a long time.

Well, recently a friend of mine gifted me two pair of Levi 501s that were her dads, that he wore beautifully. I mean they are just distressed perfectly. For whatever reason you can’t distress jeans the way that you can naturally, I don’t know how else to put that. But, I just love these and she was so sweet to give them to me. They fit me well, they were a little bit big, so the first thing that I did is I washed them with The Laundress Denim Shampoo which I think is fantastic. I put them in really hot water and I put them on a hot dryer so that they would shrink up a little bit. But I just love, you can see here, this is the way they fit right now, adore them.

Look at this cool distressing. They’re a little bit short for me, or the length is kind of bizarre, so I think I am just going to cut a little bit off of the bottom and fray them. I’ll show you how I do that, just so that they’re not to the ankle, but just a little bit high, like almost a high water because I don’t have pants of that length. Then, what I really want to do, is I want to take these and bleach and turn them almost white. And I have a way that I bleach, which is in the bath tub, I lay them all flat. So, I’m going to show you that and walk you through that whole process and see what happens to these unbelievably cool, cool Levi’s 501s that I really hope I don’t mess up.

We’ll need a pair of really sharp scissors that I use just for fabric, a tape measure, seam ripper, a pen, some Clorox bleach and some Laundress Denim Wash. The first thing I’m going to do is turn these jeans inside out because I want to use the pen and actually mark and draw a straight line across where I’m going to cut them, so that they stay nice and straight. Now, as I showed you, I just want to take a tiny bit off, so I’m going to take an inch, I’m taking my tape measure and I’m putting an inch and I’m going to mark an inch all around with my pen, down the bottom of these jeans on both sides. And then just take and mark a nice straight line that I am going to use to cut. I’m just going to take those nice, sharp fabric cutting scissors and cut that straight line where I marked it along both sides. [Music] Once I finish cutting, I like to line them up, just to make sure that they’re nice and even and are along all sides even, which here they do look good.

So, very happy about that. Now, I’m just going to take my seam ripper and start ripping along the edges along all sides where I just cut. Now, this takes a little bit and you just ripping, ripping, ripping. And the thing about it is, it may not look like you’re doing a whole lot at this point, but trust me, once you get done and wash them, they’re very distressed at the bottom, just by doing this seam ripping. Okay, now I am just turning them right side in or whatever, getting them to the right side. I’m going to take a look and show you here at the bottom how this all turned out after cutting and seam ripping and then we’re going to get ready to take them over and start bleaching. I do my bleaching in the tub where I can lay the jeans flat. So, I’m putting a lot of cold water in here and then a bunch of the bleach, almost half of that thing of bleach.

I put my gloves on and I’m just going to lay these pants, get them really good and soaked into the bleached water. Now, what I do is I take a look at them every hour or so, turn them around on the other side and then get them to wear I like the look of them. They’re going to lighten up a lot once I wash them. It’s now been about three hours, I like the way they look, so I’m going to take them out. I put them in this big plastic garbage bag, just so they don’t drip all around and I’m going to take and wash them with my Laundress Denim Wash. Here is how they turned out. Pretty good. I’m pretty happy with it. Yay! Okay, all finished, here they are bleached and frayed down at the bottom. I do like how it turned out. So, again, I think this length is a little bit better, it’s very distressed on the fraying.

You can see that even if it doesn’t look like it’s as frayed as you think, by the time you wash them and dry them, the fraying comes out. They’re bleached. They’re not quite as light as I would have wanted to get them, but I think it’s because they were already pre-faded and bleached. But, I do like how they lightened up quite a bit and I just do love the fit of them.

They’re a little bit different than the other ones that I have. So, a little bit looser, kind of boyfriend jeans-y with the distressing and down here with the fraying. Another way to wear these is to peg and cuff them, sort of 80s style almost. My son showed me how to do this. So, I’ll show you, it’s a little bit tricky. Not tricky, but you basically need to take the pant leg and smoosh it together like this to peg it, and then you carefully start to roll it up. Now, it’s going to be a little bit tight in this beginning sections of when you’re rolling it up, but you just keep sort of making a small roll and then get it to where you want it and then you can play around with it to make them even and the right sort of distance apart. But that’s another fun way to wear these kinds of jeans as well, so I thought I’d show you that too. That’s how this turned out. Would love to know if you have fun bleaching, fraying, distressing and finding Levi’s 501s and if you’re a big fan of them, like I am.

Thank you again, Christina, so much for the pants, to Christina’s dad for wearing them so well. I appreciate you watching, thank you. Until next time, have fun and dress it up a little. [Music].

[Music] Welcome to The Dress Up Mom. [Music] I have work and tried a lot of different jeans in my life, but I have never found a pair of jeans that fit me better and that I liked better than classic Levi’s 501s. For whatever reason, the way that body type is, I’m not at all curvy, these sort of unisex pants, just I love and I think fit me well and look well on me. I literally have been wearing 501s since I was in high school, so I love them and I like the older ones better than the newer ones, of course, for whatever reason. So, I’m always looking for a vintage pair of these and I recently was gifted the coolest pair, that I’m going to tell you about. And in this video, I am going to fray them and cut them just a little bit, but try to bleach them and make them a lot lighter. So, that’s what we’re doing in this video. But first, thank you so much for watching, I really appreciate it.

If you are a regular viewer and subscriber, I absolutely love you. If you haven’t subscribed and like what you’re seeing, please do, it’s just the button here, it means the world to me. We are also on all the social media outlets, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter @thedressupmom #thedressupmom. You can watch us there too. So, like I said, I’m always on the lookout for good vintage 501s, I have quite a few that I wear already, but I didn’t have a good sort of baggy, boyfriendy one that was distressed, because I don’t like the way some of the distressing looks, if it’s been distressed on purposed. I’ve had my eye out on that for a long time.

Well, recently a friend of mine gifted me two pair of Levi 501s that were her dads, that he wore beautifully. I mean they are just distressed perfectly. For whatever reason you can’t distress jeans the way that you can naturally, I don’t know how else to put that. But, I just love these and she was so sweet to give them to me. They fit me well, they were a little bit big, so the first thing that I did is I washed them with The Laundress Denim Shampoo which I think is fantastic. I put them in really hot water and I put them on a hot dryer so that they would shrink up a little bit. But I just love, you can see here, this is the way they fit right now, adore them.

Look at this cool distressing. They’re a little bit short for me, or the length is kind of bizarre, so I think I am just going to cut a little bit off of the bottom and fray them. I’ll show you how I do that, just so that they’re not to the ankle, but just a little bit high, like almost a high water because I don’t have pants of that length. Then, what I really want to do, is I want to take these and bleach and turn them almost white. And I have a way that I bleach, which is in the bath tub, I lay them all flat. So, I’m going to show you that and walk you through that whole process and see what happens to these unbelievably cool, cool Levi’s 501s that I really hope I don’t mess up.

We’ll need a pair of really sharp scissors that I use just for fabric, a tape measure, seam ripper, a pen, some Clorox bleach and some Laundress Denim Wash. The first thing I’m going to do is turn these jeans inside out because I want to use the pen and actually mark and draw a straight line across where I’m going to cut them, so that they stay nice and straight. Now, as I showed you, I just want to take a tiny bit off, so I’m going to take an inch, I’m taking my tape measure and I’m putting an inch and I’m going to mark an inch all around with my pen, down the bottom of these jeans on both sides. And then just take and mark a nice straight line that I am going to use to cut. I’m just going to take those nice, sharp fabric cutting scissors and cut that straight line where I marked it along both sides. [Music] Once I finish cutting, I like to line them up, just to make sure that they’re nice and even and are along all sides even, which here they do look good.

So, very happy about that. Now, I’m just going to take my seam ripper and start ripping along the edges along all sides where I just cut. Now, this takes a little bit and you just ripping, ripping, ripping. And the thing about it is, it may not look like you’re doing a whole lot at this point, but trust me, once you get done and wash them, they’re very distressed at the bottom, just by doing this seam ripping. Okay, now I am just turning them right side in or whatever, getting them to the right side. I’m going to take a look and show you here at the bottom how this all turned out after cutting and seam ripping and then we’re going to get ready to take them over and start bleaching. I do my bleaching in the tub where I can lay the jeans flat. So, I’m putting a lot of cold water in here and then a bunch of the bleach, almost half of that thing of bleach.

I put my gloves on and I’m just going to lay these pants, get them really good and soaked into the bleached water. Now, what I do is I take a look at them every hour or so, turn them around on the other side and then get them to wear I like the look of them. They’re going to lighten up a lot once I wash them. It’s now been about three hours, I like the way they look, so I’m going to take them out. I put them in this big plastic garbage bag, just so they don’t drip all around and I’m going to take and wash them with my Laundress Denim Wash. Here is how they turned out. Pretty good. I’m pretty happy with it. Yay! Okay, all finished, here they are bleached and frayed down at the bottom. I do like how it turned out. So, again, I think this length is a little bit better, it’s very distressed on the fraying.

You can see that even if it doesn’t look like it’s as frayed as you think, by the time you wash them and dry them, the fraying comes out. They’re bleached. They’re not quite as light as I would have wanted to get them, but I think it’s because they were already pre-faded and bleached. But, I do like how they lightened up quite a bit and I just do love the fit of them.

They’re a little bit different than the other ones that I have. So, a little bit looser, kind of boyfriend jeans-y with the distressing and down here with the fraying. Another way to wear these is to peg and cuff them, sort of 80s style almost. My son showed me how to do this. So, I’ll show you, it’s a little bit tricky. Not tricky, but you basically need to take the pant leg and smoosh it together like this to peg it, and then you carefully start to roll it up. Now, it’s going to be a little bit tight in this beginning sections of when you’re rolling it up, but you just keep sort of making a small roll and then get it to where you want it and then you can play around with it to make them even and the right sort of distance apart. But that’s another fun way to wear these kinds of jeans as well, so I thought I’d show you that too. That’s how this turned out. Would love to know if you have fun bleaching, fraying, distressing and finding Levi’s 501s and if you’re a big fan of them, like I am.

Thank you again, Christina, so much for the pants, to Christina’s dad for wearing them so well. I appreciate you watching, thank you. Until next time, have fun and dress it up a little. [Music].

As found on Youtube