I know it’s a brand new year and we should start fresh, but don’t throw away everything in your closet just yet, especially that vintage denim you’ve been keeping for, like, forever. I’m going to show you another technique which you can use to refresh your oh-so-last-season denim.

What you’ll need:

t0125Y-diy_feat3_1 — MATERIALS for the project

1. Denim shorts/cropped denim shorts

2. Generic bleach

3. Scissors

4. Container, basin or pail

5. Clock or timer

Procedure:

*You can use gloves to protect your hands from the bleach, it’s not really pleasant on the skin and the smell is just awful. Also, be careful with the clothes you’re wearing; you don’t want patches of bleach on it. Better yet, use old clothing while doing this project.

1 Prepare a clean container and fill it up with one to two inches of pure bleach. Be sure to do this project in the open air so you don’t suffocate from the bleach’s smell. Estimate how much of the shorts you want to bleach, then slowly soak it in. To give you an idea, I decided to soak two to three inches of my shorts’ hem. Then it’s time to watch the clock.

*I decided to use pure bleach instead of mixing it with water so it would be easier for the denim to react with the bleaching ingredient.

2 After 10-20 minutes, this is how your denim is going to look. You can see quite a difference and a change in color on the part of the denim soaked in bleach. Be sure not to move the shorts or the container you used, so the bleach won’t get anywhere it doesn’t need to be. We’re going for something consistent, so we don’t want patches of bleach on our shorts.

3 After 40-50 minutes, this is how the soaked part of the denim is going to look. You can see that the hem turns almost pure white. Don’t let your denim get soaked in bleach for more than 60 minutes, because bleach makes the denim really soft and you don’t want your shorts to fall apart. Remove your shorts from the bleach and give it a wash and a rinse.

4 After hanging your denim dry, you can grab your scissors and crop it to your preferred length of bleached area, and you’re done! Another new pair of styled denim shorts to kick off 2013!

There are a lot of processes that you can try to style old or new denim using water, bleach, scissors and your imagination! You can bleach it, crop it, shred it or whatever! Playfulness is one of your keys to resolving a style dilemma. Remember, why buy when you can DIY?