Make Cool Ripped up Jeans

When ripped up jeans are just the thing your daughter is drooling over, but the miserly mom in you says "i'm not paying THAT much for jeans with holes in them", there is a way to make both of you happy! Buy some bargain jeans and convert them into cool jeans yourself. You'll save money and your daughter will think you're all the rage. ;) This is a fun mother/daughter project.

We found some jeans on sale at Old Navy that made a good starting point, but any sale jeans will do the trick.

Before you start, look online for some pictures of ripped up jeans to get an idea for the look your child wants, exactly HOW ripped they should be and some location ideas. Some of the coolest "rips" are in locations that you wouldn't really think about.

You want some type of hard surface to but inside the pants leg. We used 2 wooden slats that were in the basement.

Then we went to work on beating up the jeans. We tried rubbing them with some rocks, sand paper and a few other rough surfaces. We had the best luck with a cheese grater!!! That's right! Rubbing the grater over the jeans provided some rip spots, but most of all it just made the surface weak and worn looking.

After having "worn them out" for a while in several strategic areas, there were not too many actual holes. I grabbed a pair of scissors and opened them up and begain pulling one blade across the fabric really quickly. This did the trick!

We threw them in the wash and viola! my tweenager has the best jeans around all for $12. Plus it provided a great afternoon of fun and goofing around. And I'm officially "the coolest mom" (for at least another hour - lol).