Denim DIY: Six Ways To Up-Cycle Your Old Jeans And Fix Your Favourite Pair

Start first by putting on your jeans, then grab a pen, chalk, safety pins or dress pins to mark up exactly where you want your rips and distressing to be.

Lay your jeans on a flat surface. Start by roughly cutting the bottom of the jeans off, so they don’t have a neat hem - or cutting a slit in the knee. To create holes, use a pair of small but sharp nail scissors or fabric scissors, precision is key here. Wedge a piece of cardboard or a small wooden block inside the legs to protect the back of the jeans when cutting at the knee.

Finally, take your scissors and use the edge of the blade (not the tip) to scrape down the length of the jeans horizontally in the areas that you want the rips to form. Stop when you start to see the white threads. Grab your tweezers and sporadically pull threads. Then, grab a cheese grater, pumice stone or sandpaper to rough up the edges.

Simple as that!

Simply grab a key ring or a elastic band/hair band and slide it through the zipper. Zip your jeans up fully and secure the ring or band over the button.

If the zipper pull broke off:

Extra paper clip or a key ring lying around? Just slide it through the tab on the zip slider and job done.

If the zipper keeps getting stuck:

One word: lubricant. Take some vaseline, a bar of soap, or even window cleaner, apply to the teeth of the zipper and then inch the zip up and down. Continue doing so until the zipper gets unstuck.

If the zipper slider broke off:

The simple option is to replace the entire zip but it can be fixed without extreme measures. You'll need an edge cutter, pliers and tweezers. First, you'll need to remove the top stop (the little plastic square that's at the top of the zipper that prevents the slider from getting off the zipper) without damaging the zipper tape. After you successfully removed the tape and the broken slider, slide in your replacement zipper and make sure it functions properly. Now that that's done, you need to replace the top stop you removed. Top stops come in different materials and sizes so make sure the one you pick fits your zipper properly. After that, you only have to pick it up with your pliers and place it to the last tooth of your zipper and squeeze it tight, and voila!

Firstly, you need to try your old jeans and work out where you want the shorts to sit on your leg - choose from a longer length, Bermuda style, cycling style short or bum-skimming short shorts. Mark this off using pins or chalk. Make the inseam (the area along your crotch) longer than the sides of your shorts rather than cutting them straight across for a more flattering shape.

Lay the jeans on a flat surface and cut off the majority of the trouser legs to create knee-length shorts (for short shorts) or shin-level for a longer style. This will make the jeans easier to handle without all the extra material in the way.

Cut slightly your marked line because the shorts will fray and shorten in the wash. Fold the shorts in half to cut the other leg so they’re the same length and shape.

Simply finish by fraying the ends with tweezers and a grater, or turn them up.

Fill a bathtub or large basin/bowl with roughly five inches of water and, wearing gloves, pour in an entire container of bleach so you have an approx 1:1 ratio of bleach to water. Mix your concoction with a wooden spoon.

Depending on the look you're going for, lower the jeans into the water, spreading them out so they lie as flat as possible. All the fabric should be covered with the water if you're all-over bleaching. To get a tie-dye effect, tie off bunches of the denim with hair bands and let sit in the mix, or try a dip-dye by simply dropping the bottom half of the jeans into the tub (ensure the top half is held up so I can't slip in).

About 15-20 minutes after you put them in the basin (or as soon as you see any color start to lift), remove them from the bleach, remove the rubber bands, rinse in cold water, and lay out to dry.

Wash the jeans - alone - in a washing machine to remove the bleach smell.

Sound too easy for you? Try the TikTok viral trend below for half-bleached denim.

If you’re looking to shrink cotton jeans, hot water works wonders on cotton fibers. Don’t put them in the washing machine with any other clothes, wash inside out on a hot rinse and don't use any softener.

After you've finished washing them on a hot cycle, toss them in the dryer, and turn it to the hot setting. All the heat will constrict the fibres in the denim, making your jeans snugger than they were before.

If washing jeans in hot water isn’t enough to shrink them, we recommend ironing them. Leave freshly washed jeans out to hang dry until damp but not dripping. Iron with slow, smooth motions across each leg until fully dry.

For a more unconventional method, try taking a hot bath while wearing your jeans.

Spray them with lukewarm water, and then lay the jeans out on the floor. Stand on each leg of the jeans, bend down, and use your hands to manually pull and stretch the jeans while they are wet. Pull them in any and all directions, reapplying the lukewarm water as needed.

Finally - do not put them in the dryer (even on a low setting) after doing this.