Distress Your Jeans Junk Gypsy Style
A do-it-yourself tutorial I followed from the
My obsession with the Junk Gypsy's style started back in 2010 when I was a junior in college, after having discovered them through Miranda Lambert. I fell in love with the Junk Gypsy designs, their passion for all things old, their unique t-shirts, fun jewelry and their fearless fashion sense. Every paycheck, I would browse their "sale" page looking for a deal on a t-shirt or jewelry piece I couldn't live without.
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| The Junk Gypsy style photo with "Mama Tried" tanks and distressed jeans. Gypsyville.com |
I did my best to rock the junk gypsy look. I bought a black button up vest, cut the tops of my t-shirts off to make a more off-of-the-shoulder fit, layered my jewelry and wore my boots. I rocked everything but the pantalones department. I VIVIDLY remember googling "junk gypsy jeans" and "what jeans do the Junk Gypsies wear". I was obsessed with their jeans, and their distressed look they always had.
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| Amy and Jolie. Photo from the Junk Gypsy Book. |
And unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how we look at it) I never found an answer. I remember searching in the chain store called Buckle for distressed jeans like Amy and Jolie's, couldn't find em. Eventually I came across a photo of the Sikes sisters and realized they were wearing the American Eagle brand jeans. So I ran to the mall and searched their jeans too, but no luck. All the distressed jeans I kept finding were high fashion jeans and their "distress" look was NOT that of the Junk Gypsy style distress I was looking for!
But fast forward to 2016 and the release of the long-awaited book, Junk Gypsy: Designing a Life at the Crossroads of Wonder and Wander, and there it is, in bright bold colors and easy-to-follow 9 simple steps to achieve the peRfeCt distress jean in true juNk gYpsy style. Hallelujah!!!
Even it being 6 years after my jean hunting obsession, I still want the junk gypsy distressed jean look. So I opened to page 167...
Then started by gathering the essentials tools needed...
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| Step 1- gather your tools Jeans, a sharpie, scissors and a piece of cardboard. I grabbed an older pair of BKE and Wrangler jeans I owned. So for step #1- I put the jeans on. Step #2- Using the sharpie I marked on the jeans where I wanted the distressing, then took them off. |
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| step 3 Step #3- I took the jeans off and laid them on a solid surface (our kitchen island butcher block). Step #4- I placed the piece of cardboard into the leg, below the marked area of where I was going to distress the jean (to make sure you don't damage the back fabric on that particular pant leg). |
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| Step 4 Step #5- Then the damage was made. I used a pair of scissors and scraped the fabric back and forth to cut through the denim. And I scraped, and scraped, and scraped (step #6).... my left hand which was holding the denim flat got to be very sore. |
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| Step 5 |
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| Step 7 A ta-da! The hole was achieved. I did this on each leg, on each pair of jeans, but each hole was in a different spot. One was above the knee, one was directly on the knee, one was far below the knee and I also distressed a pocket (step #7). |
For step #8, I washed and dried my newly distressed jeans.
Step #9 declared me a bonafide Rock Star. BOOM.
Here is my "before" and "after" proof.
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| Before: a standard pair of BKE jeans. After: BKE jeans distressed (at home) following the Junk Gypsy how-to |
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| Before: a standar pair of Wrangler jeans. After: a badass pair of Wrangler jeans that were distressed following the Junk Gypsy distressing how-to |
This Do-It-Yourself project is rated EASY AS PIE. Its fun, simple and easy to follow.
The Junk Gypsy book is filled with awesome do-it-yourself ideas such as this project. Make sure to pick up your copy today and start creatin'.
XOXO- Sarah Beth
