Clothes transformation: Black & boring to punk & edgy

I love black capris and pants. They go with everything, minimise attention to the lower body and are low maintenance. But black pants start de-evolving into a mouldy shabby black hue after sometime. In order to revive a pair of my old black capris, I decided to decorate it up somewhat.

The black capris were made out of a tough, denim-like material and that inspired a punk look. I still might just cut holes in the capris for an even grunger look.




1) Test bleach on a sample of the clothing. I hemmed the length of the capris and used the excess material to test how the bleach will look on the cloth.




2) Spread old newspapers on the floor and your intended workarea. Make sure it is not in an enclosed space, the fumes from the bleach can be quite toxic. Pour out some bleach into a container and dip a brush into the container (typical art supply brush shown here).




3) As I wanted to create the effect only on certain areas of the pants and to shape the areas of which the effect will be seen, I covered some areas with newspapers. Flick the wet brush onto the exposed area. After a few flicks, wait for the bleach to take effect before dipping the brush into bleach and repeating.



4) The pants will look somewhat like this. Here the effect is only on a vertical stripe as I only covered the rest of the capris with newspapers. Once satisfied with the effect, continue to do another area until satisfied.

Finished product


Close-up of the effect

Difficulty level: 1 out of 5

Machine sewing needed: No