How To Stonewash Jeans

Traditionally jeans were a workmen’s wear. Made from denim they became the most popular form of casual wear cutting across age, sex, and cultures. Identified with American culture, from the Wild West and mining days, jeans became a symbol of youth rebellion during the 50s. Known earlier as dungarees, it was only after the 70s that jeans came to be accepted in popular culture as an informal wear. The blue jeans are the most popular and have always been so. Nowadays, jeans come in various styles but the stone washed remains the most sought after. Introduced by the Great Western Garment Company, stone washed jeans attracted a wider market as the jeans became softer and flexible than the earlier sturdy version. Stonewashing gives the jeans, a worn out and faded look, which became a fixation with the youth. The process involves washing the jeans with large stones or chemicals to roughen up the denim. Given below are a few tips to stonewash jeans instead of buying, which is expensive.

Stonewashing Jeans

Industrial stone washing is done using pumice rocks in huge washers. If the pumice stones are hard to get, collect some medium sized rocks. They should be round, so that they don’t cut the jeans, with rough surface.
Fill your washing machine with one-fourth water, detergent, and rocks. Put the jeans in and turn on the washing machine.
Don’t let the machine drain out the water. After the wash, keep the jeans soaked in the wash water for four to five hours.
Repeat the washing process again until you get the desired effect. However, you may not realize the faded look in the wet jeans so set it out to dry. Try out the process again later to get a more worn out appearance.
There is another technique to stonewash your jeans. Fill a bucket with water, add a cup of salt, and dissolve it properly.
Soak the pair of jeans in the salt water for two days after which wring it to remove the excess water. Lay your jeans on a plain surface and using sandpaper scrap the surface of the jeans. Scrap the sandpaper on all those places in the jeans wherever you want the worn out look. Move the sand paper vertically. Take care to do the scrapping gently.
Hang out the jeans to dry after which you can get an idea of how much faded look you achieved. Afterwards wash normally and be careful not to weaken the denim fabric by repeating the above process too many times.
The faded look can also be achieved by washing the jeans with some chemicals. Take proper precauation like wearing gloves and aprons, but is not safe in a home washing machine so, use an industrial washer. You need to use porous pumice stones and chlorine.
Soak the stones in chlorine for some time and then put the jeans and stones into the washer. Keep checking after every five minutes, as washing the jeans too long in the acid will destroy it.
After you are satisfied with the look, put the jeans in another washer and wash with sodium bisulphate mixed in water for ten minutes, so as to remove the excess chlorine. Wash again in plain water and then set to dry.

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