DIY bleached denim jacket

finally, the sun is shining and i could now do my DIY bleaching project(s). so here is a small tutorial how to turn your boring denim jacket or vest into something more special and fashionable. 

IMPORTANT: don't do this project inside your house, it's going to smell awful for  like three weeks or something! and wear some old clothes that can be ruined, just in case you spill some of the bleach!

YOU NEED: a denim jacket or vest, some bleach and gloves

Now you have different options, depending on what effect you want to achieve:

SIMPLE BLEACH: the easiest one: just take your jacket as it is and throw it into a bucket with bleach. wait until your jacket is as light as you want it, then take it out.

OMBRE EFFECT: put your jacket into a bucket, then part for part take the jacket out of the bleach, so that in the end the bottom had been in the bleach just for about half an hour and the top maybe two or three hours, depending on how light you want your jacket - watch a tutorial by thefashioncitizen on youtube, it's kinda easy..

ACID WASH EFFECT: for acid washing you'll need a spray bottle and then you would just randomly spray the bleach onto your jacket, let it sit a while, then add the next layer.. it takes a long time, but it looks so good and i think it's definitely worth it, watch an awesome tutorial here on youtube, everything's explained there!

TIE DYE EFFECT: tie dye is the effect i chose and it's also pretty simple, you just need to crumple the fabric of your jacket and secure everything with rubber bands or twine, don't try to achieve a certain pattern, you wouldn't be able to control that anyway, so just do it randomly and then put it into a bucket with bleach.

next step is very easy, fill an old but clean bucket with some bleach and put your jacket inside, the bleach should cover the whole jacket - well, could be a nice effect, too if it doesn't. if you're using 'dan klorix' bleach, don't make the same mistake that i did and mix it with water (the bleaching process took about 8 hours..), this isn't a very strong bleach, so just buy two or three bottles and put your denim in there. but anyway it is important to come back every half an our to see how light your denim already is. especially if you use very strong bleach you have to be careful that the fabric of your clothes doesn't get destroyed.

if you think your denim jacket is light enough, take it out of the bleach and cut off the twine or rubber bands. above you can see how my jacket looked after i took it out of the bleach - still wet. if you think the contrast between the bleached and not bleached fabric is too big, just throw your jacket back into the bleach and it will be lightened up a bit. if you're satisfied take your jacket and wash out the excess bleach, for example in your shower. before you can wear it, it is important to put the jacket into the washing machine, but be careful, there's still a lot of bleach in the fabric, so just wash it with white clothes!

so my jacket isn't finished at all, i'm planning to sew either a great-britain-flag or the print of a 30-seconds-to-mars-shirt on the back of it, and of cours studs shouldn't be missing - so be excited about what's coming up!