How to Fray Jeans in 8 Steps

Beginners can follow these easy instructions to make a pair of ripped jeans with a frayed look:

1. 1. Choose your pants. You can fray all kinds of denim jeans, from skinny jeans to wide-leg jeans, from old jeans to your best jeans. Fraying newer jeans creates a worn-in look, or you can distress a pair of well-worn jeans.
2. 2. Work on a flat surface. To fray jeans, place them on a flat surface and mark with chalk where you’d like to cut along the bottom of the legs. Measure your desired length, and draw a dotted line with your chalk to mark where you will trim.
3. 3. Cut off the bottoms of the pant legs. Crop jeans using a pair of fabric scissors—cut in a straight line along the dotted chalk lines to take off the bottom-most inch or two, depending on how much you’ve measured. You can turn a pair of bootcut jeans into ankle jeans.
4. 4. Loosen the threads along the cut. After cutting the bottoms, tug at them to undo the hems and bring out the white threads. This will give your jeans a raw, uneven, and natural look.
5. 5. Make additional cuts. For clearer fraying, add some quarter-inch diagonal cuts along the bottom of your jeans. This will let the threads come more undone with each wear for a rougher look.
6. 6. Refine with a tweezer. After you’ve cut your jeans, use a pair of tweezers to unravel threads. Pull at the exposed threads along the pant legs to make a raw hemline and create a more fashionable, edgier jeans look. Snip away at excess hanging threads.
7. 7. Fully distress your jeans. You can make additional cuts on the pantlegs to further distress your jeans. Take a shaver or cheese grater and carefully grate at the knees, thighs, and belt loops—natural places where a pair of jeans would relax over time. For a more thorough undoing, use a pair of scissors to snip at tighter parts of the jeans that hug your legs. Then, rub sandpaper over these areas for further distressing. Avoid cutting along the inseam to keep the pants intact.
8. 8. Wash before wearing. Toss your jeans in the washing machine along with your other denim clothing. Washing will get rid of some of the excess hanging threads and will fluff up the frayed edges. Wash with normal detergent (bleach will heavily color your jeans, so avoid using that unless that look is what you are going for), then air dry or tumble dry.

Frayed denim shorts or pants go great with t-shirts for a more casual look. You can also pair your jeans with a frayed denim jacket for an all-denim ensemble. Tuck a shirt in with a belt to accentuate the waistline of your frayed hem jeans, or wear a tee with a pair of straight-leg or slim jeans.

Use the following tools to accomplish a frayed hem on denim jackets, black jeans, or jean shorts:

1. 1. A pair of scissors. When making distressed denim, you will need scissors a to cut off the bottom of your jeans.
2. 2. Tweezers. Tweezers can help you tug at threads to give your jeans a frayed and rough-around-the-edges but comfortable quality.
   
3. 3. A shaver or cheesegrater. These sharper instruments can help rough up parts of your denim that would naturally tear over time, like the knees (where jeans bend) or thighs (where jeans may be tighter).
4. 4. Sandpaper. After tearing at threading and making cuts in your jeans, sandpaper can help to clean and smooth the edges of your tears.

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