Jeans, Jeans, The Musical Fruit

Or rather, the faded, old, worn out, and in desperate need of a revamp. (Yes, I have red toes. They contrast ever-so-nicely with my blue jeans, don't they?)

Here are the jeans, though. They're heavy duty ones I got for Christmas from my parents a few years back. They were lovely in their heyday, but after a few years of being worn they got the faded around the knees, I've-been-loved-but-now-I'm-not-very-nice-looking look. You know the one I'm talking about. These had been sitting unworn on my closet shelf for what seems like forever though; only to be pulled out when I procrastinatedforgot to do laundry for too long. In short, they were really, really, really sad.

Recently I've been looking for a pair of acid washed jeans, but haven't managed to find a pair that's understated and fits me. Do you see where I'm going here? Yeah, it did take me a half a year or so to connect the dots - old jeans, faded, lack of acid washed jeans, lack of money - but I eventually got there...I needed to make my own pair. So I did a bit of googling and pondering, and came up with an idea.

Recipe for Acid-Washed Jeans

• Jeans - cheap ones, old ones, ones you don't care about...you get the picture.
• Bleach - the amount depends on the jeans. I used a roughly a couple cups.
• Rubber gloves - because you really don't want to be touching bleach straight bleach.
• Old clothes - you don't want anything nice to get spotty.
• A Sink - or tote, bucket, whatever. Something that will easily hold a pair of jeans. A sink really works best, though.
• Water - just enough to dampen the jeans.

From here on it's simple. Dampen the jeans, then start pouring on bleach. Start with a little, wait 5-10 minutes, then pour on more as needed. Hold up the jeans, inspect them, figure out where you want more color gone, and keep adding bleach. The time this takes will vary (it took me an hour and a half), so keep a close eye on the jeans so they don't over-bleach. After they're at the point you want them to be at, start rinsing them. This is where it comes in handy to be doing this in a sink, because you have running water right there instead of having to use pitchers of water. After you've rinsed them well, put them in the wash by themselves and set it going. It's going to take a few cycles to get the smell out, so be prepared to wait a while to wear them unless you want to smell like you've been cleaning bathrooms all day!

Mine still smell faintly chloriney even after three washings, so I think I may have to pop them in again. I really couldn't wait to try them on, though.

So there you go, acid washed jeans in an afternoon. You can't beat that.

An Introductory Post

Hi, blogosphere.

I suppose I should explain who I am, why I’m here, and what I’m doing since that seems like the polite and proper thing to do. Plus that way I can continue blogging with all of the introductions out of the way and never have to look back at it again, since quite frankly I’m awful at them, both online and in real life. So, without further adieu….

My name is Abby, I’m 16 years old, and I like to make things look good. Yeah, that’s a pretty vague ‘like’ right there, but it really is what I like to do. Turning something from unremarkable into eyecatching is wonderful and fantastically fun! (Especially so when it’s done in a way that saves money, and even more especially so when it’s a bit crafty/fussy/artsy at the same time.) I’ve enjoyed this for as long as I can remember, all the way back to when I was about six or seven and was embellishing socks and hats with jewels and glitter glue.

I’d like to think, or hope, or whatever you want to call it that I’ve graduated from drawing glittery flowers onto jean sun visors. Now I’ve branched out a bit into things like thrifting outfits from goodwill, revamping old jeans, and generally just finding ways to make ugly things look good. I’m always up for trying new things. (This translates directly into this: you should shoot me ideas of anything you want me to try, and I’ll see what I can do because new creative ideas make me happy.)

And,  so you can get an idea of who I am rather than just reading words on a screen, here are a couple pictures. The first is of me and my dog McDuffy; the second is of me and my entire family.

So this is the end, but not for long. I plan to do at least a post a week, depending on what my creativity level is at, so expect more soon.