Hello and welcome to my latest DIY, or DTSY (do that s*** yourself!). I'm sure many of you have figured out that ombre...everything is a huge trend right now and has been since last summer. Ombre hair, ombre tops, ombre shorts, ombre everything! Today was the last day of my junior year, so what better way to start off the summer than with a DIY?
Before we get started, let me warn you: make sure you do this outside! It sounds dumb but my brother and I had a bad experience with bleach fumes (sore, scratchy throats) when we did acid wash jeans inside the house...don't laugh!
You'll need: 1. a pair of jeans or shorts (preferably denim) that you don't mind losing in case of a mistake 2. a pair of scissors 3. bleach and water 4. a bucket 5. a clippy hanger or a skinny pole that can fit through the belt loops of your shorts 6. an old towel, old sheets, or somewhere for it to hang and dry (outside) 7. white vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar) and OPTIONAL 8. sand paper and an old toothbrush
Your first step is to mark and cut the shorts. If you've ever done this before, you know what to do. If not, you should try them on to see where to cut or use a different pair of shorts for length reference. After that (and this is where the optional tools come in) you can distress them, make holes, make scratches, etc. with a sheet of sandpaper and scissors.
After you've done that, you'll need the bucket, bleach, and water. I didn't measure exactly how much bleach and water I put, but it was about 1" of water and about 1" of bleach. Next you use either the clippy hanger (for lack of a better term lol) or the skinny pole to suspend the shorts over the bucket.
I left them in for about half an hour-40 minutes, checking up on them every 10 minutes. This is what they looked like when I first took them out of the bucket.
I let them lay out for roughly 10 minutes (5 minutes on each side), then I hung them up on a clothing pole in my front yard for around 15 minutes. This was the result.
After doing that, I wet the toothbrush with bleach and brushed around the edges where the actual color meets the white part. I didn't do this too much so it didn't affect the look of my shorts, but if you do it more it helps the ombre look more gradual after you put them in the wash. Here is where I did the fraying with the sandpaper as well.
To stop the bleaching process, you should use white vinegar. I used apple cider vinegar. I believe the difference is just what effect it would have on the color. It didn't have any effect here. I simply poured some of the vinegar over the shorts in my kitchen sink and then rinsed it out. After that, put them in the wash and dryer (I also put a bit of detergent in with them) alone. Emphasis on alone.
Here's how they looked after taking them out of the washer and dryer:
And here's how they looked after I studded them! They didn't turn out perfect but I love them anyway.
What DIYs are you doing this summer?
