fail AND REDEMPTION: BLEACHED SHORTS

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This post should've come to you a long time ago but, it has taken a while to get over what I'm about to tell you. Today I will tell you the most depressing story when it comes to crafting. We had big plans for those shorts up there. We had seen all the cute bleached shorts around the internet and thought... we should do this! So we went to Goodwill and got those shorts up there, brought them home, and followed a YouTube tutorial we had seen- STEP BY STEP. To continue with the story, I will tell you exactly what we did.

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Cut the bottom of the shorts in whatever way you want.
You can see in the picture how we cut ours.

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Take an exacto knife, scissors and sand paper...

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And rough up the shorts where you'd like.
We cut slits and then went over them with sand paper.

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Next we stuck the shorts in a bucket of bleach exactly as many tutorials told us to. We let it sit until the shorts turned white- which Casey's never did. We probably left them for an hour. We didn't think anything of it considering one of the girls had left hers to bleach for TWENTY-FOUR HOURS.

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When we got scared of how long the shorts had been sitting in the bleach,
we put them out to dry in the bathtub.

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Drying... And here is where the story goes tragic. We let the shorts dry for a long time but they were not drying at all. In the tutorial, the girl NEVER washed the shorts which is upsetting because who wants to walk around in bleached shorts that have never been washed? That's smelly. And probably not good for your skin. We decided we were going to wash ours. So we did. When Casey went to move our shorts from the washer to the dryer, this is what she found...

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That's right. We have just showed you how to make a bleached blue jean thong- WITH pockets. Let's just say, I was scarred. It all started out so innocent and now I can't even look at bleached shorts the same. It took a while to have the courage to buy more shorts and give this tutorial another try but, we did. It was mostly scary because we never really figured out what went wrong. So we researched it and this is what we did that actually worked.

- Sit your shorts in half bleach/ half water.
- Let sit for about 20-30 minutes.
- Dry the shorts- we put ours in the dryer after they had dried a little.
- Cut the bottom of the shorts in whatever shape you'd like.
- Wash them alone (or in this case we washed the two pairs together).
- Dry.
- Add designs or proceed to dye another color.

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These are the shorts from the second try. Much MUCH better. Mostly because they are actually wearable in public.

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I added designs to my shorts with a fabric Sharpie, but that ran out so I switched to a regular Sharpie. Casey is still deciding what she will do with her shorts. We will make sure to show you what she does. If you decide to do this project one day, just go into it knowing that you may end up with a pair of really uncomfortable underwear.

37 comments

  1. That is hilarious. My first try I threw some bleach on them and expected an instant change. I let mine soak for about five minutes too because I was scared of them over bleaching. Finally I also realized to let it soak until I see the color I want. Yours came out great and I love the pattern you drew. Thanks for that inspiration :)

    Check out my gorgeous Necklace GIVEAWAY :)
    Angela @ The Lovely Cup

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  2. The funniest post ever... but I;m glad you finally got it. They look great in the end. :D

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  3. OH my, those first ones hurt my heart. Have when a diy goes wrong! Glad you tried again because they look great.

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  4. Can't believe how wrong that went, but the final outcome (the right way) looks awesome! Definitely look like something you'd buy Topshop.

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  5. How did you add those designs to them!? They look amazing!!

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    1. I just edited the post to add this info, but I used a sharpie. I just freehanded the designs.

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  6. oooh, love the designs! not a huge fan of the plain bleached ones, but the designs really make it pop :D hahaha, jean thongs don't sound too comfortable ;P

    LOVE your blog btw, just discovered it and it's gorgeous <3

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  7. What did you use to design the shorts? :) I love it!

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  8. Oh my goodness, the poor first pairs! Was the issue that they were bleached too long, or did it have something to do with them getting cut before the bleach went on?

    I always think these bleached shorts are cute, but most of my shirts are long (I have a short torso) so you would never see the top part of the shorts on me.

    Kristina

    Kristina does the Internets

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  9. That made me giggle...it's always a bit sad when a diy goes wrong but I don't think I've ever seen a bleached jeans thong with pockets :-)...the second pair look amazing though so well done for trying again!

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  10. This post was superfunny! That sentence about the thongs with pockets cracked me up! Hahaha!!! But the final ones with the pattern turned out really cool! :D

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  11. I love the design you drew on the shorts! You should post pictures of them on... I'm really curious to see how they look on! :)

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  12. I just did a pair of shorts too. I was told to do alf bleach half water but i didnt have enough bleach so i ended up doing 4 parts water to 1 part bleach! :L but i le mine sit over night and they turned out fine so its all good :L

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  13. Awww, sad. Don't feel bad about failing, though -- that's how we learn! Feel free to send me your fails anytime at craftfail.com :)

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  14. i really wanted to do this to my pants! glad I read this post so that I don't do it the wrong way lol! thanks for the trial and error!

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  15. Oh Dudelettes. How I did the exact same thing. The instructions I saw however had said 8 hours, so I left mine in for 6 thinking I would be totally safe.

    Nope. It fell totally apart. Check it out. http://cuziusepinterest.blogspot.com/2012/07/cuz-im-on-quest-for-colored-skinnies.html

    Seriously I would like to know what kind of weak a$$ bleach these other people are using.

    cheers,
    .j.

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  16. I watched YouTube tutorials to figure out how to do mine, too! I had the same result except mine didn't rip to shreds until after I ombre dyed them and the color looked perfect. It was incredible. I've never seen cloth rip like paper! My experience was a complete shit show. Not only did the bleach smell fill my entire house, it made me sick, and then my shorts ripped to bit. lol I'm glad you figured it out!

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  17. That happened to me too! except that all that was left was the belt loops and zipper because I bleached the whole thing!

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  18. lol wow people should not be posting tutorials until they've completed the whole wash and dry cycle.

    enjoyed your post:)

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  19. Hi! I've given you some link love at http://lipstickandawhitetee.blogspot.com/2012/12/favorite-diys-from-2012.html, since your DIY was one of my Top 10 DIYs from other bloggers :) love these shorts!!

    J

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  20. Hiya! Hilarious post :) With mine, I filled a squirty bottle with half bleach and half water, then sprayed them, loads at the bottom and then a little less nearer the top, made a really nice gradient :)Haven't got a pic at the mo but will link when I've got my blog back up online

    Beth

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  21. When you washed them, did you use normal detergent and everything?

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  22. RIT sells a dye remover. Works nicely. Doesn't eat the cotton. Dharma Trading sells a similar color remover (http://www.dharmatrading.com/Dharmas_Dyehouse_Color_Remover/index.shtml)

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  23. omg that has happened to me twice already!! I'll try again with this technique hopefully it works.

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  24. What would you use to dye them another color?

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  25. OMG! The same just happened to me today and yesterday. I was trying to see where I went wrong and ended here. Today, I was doing a friend of mine, she shouldnt be mad, but I will refund her money back to her. This is really devastating!

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  26. i bleached mine too long their in the washer now they have some damage im scared what do i do next other their done washing i dont want them to come out looking like the ones you messed up on SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME WHAT DO I DO

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  27. I am super late seeing this, I wish I had known. *smh* I was trying 2 pair...the second pair were fine, but the shorts were thick...the bleach ended up eating a few holes in my shorts. No doubt the color changed, but I had to patch up the few holes I had. I hope the pants stay together though...would hate to split my pants in public lol

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  28. as for Claudius...if you have sewing skills, take the bottoms of some other jeans and sew it to the ruined ones. OR...get a skirt you aren't too fond of anymore(can be a graphic skirt, cotton/polyester/whatever flowy material) and sew the bottom of skirt on the scary looking shorts. If your not crafty, find a crafty person to help you...or you may end up throwing them away like others have. That's all the help I have to offer.

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  29. THIS EXACT THING HAPPENED TO ME TODAY! I had the most perfect pair of wrangler jeans and cut them in to shorts. They fit perfectly and I was so excited about them! After letting them sit in bleach and putting them in the washer they turned out shredded and I literally cried because they were so pretty! I don't know if I'll ever find another pair of vintage jeans that fit that perfectly but it was seriously depressing. I wish I would have seen this post sooner!

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  30. Hi! When you put the shorts to dry, there is a pink line between the colour of the jeans and the part where they were bleached. I got a similar line and I can't get it out. Can you please tell me what you did to get your's out? Thanks!

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  31. would it be possible to use your photos for a magazine that i making? loved the tutorial btw

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    1. Sure Noa! As long as you credit us, it's no problem!

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  32. just a handy tip I learnt in textiles class whilst bleaching; after you've washed the bleach out, leave to sit in white distilled vinager, (white because regular vinager may discolour your bleached away parts), as bleach can continue very slowly degrade/disintergrate the fabric, very slowly, but after a few weeks/months it can burn out holes in your fabric. The time it takes will be longer/shorter on different fabrics, denim mch longer due to its thickness and hard wearing-ness, but the vinager counteracts with the bleach and then nuetralises it. - just a handy tip! - Rachel

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  33. Loved the tutorial.Great idea!

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