Using Coffee Grounds to Make Vintage Jeans ??
Just to prove there are no creative limitations for creating your own pair of vintage jeans, we found this video with instructions on how to dye your denim with coffee grounds.
In the end it is a pretty simple process…just soak your jeans in a bucket with the unused coffee grounds. Make sure you use a filter to avoid making a mess! The guys in this video used a pair of panty hose which seemed to work well.
This technique opens up a whole new world of ideas. What if you used tea or even soft drinks?
You have to wonder though…how do these jeans SMELL after this? It is probably best to use a flavored brand like vanilla to avoid an overwhelming coffee scent.
Tips to Give Your New Jeans a Vintage Look
Even though there are plenty of places to find vintage jeans, some people prefer to simply make their own jeans look used since they prefer the newer brands and styles. But getting your jeans to look worn and comfortable can take forever if you try to wear them out naturally.
Luckily there are plenty of cheap and effective ways to get a vintage look with simple techniques you can do in your own home. From sandpaper to bleach sticks, a little elbow grease and creativity can give you the look you desire. Here is a great video tutorial on some of the ways to get the job done.
Get even more tips in our article on How to Make Your Own Vintage Jeans
How to Care for Vintage Denim
Finding the perfect pair of jeans is no easy task. Everyone has unique curves and features in their body – some that we like to accent and others that we want to hide. As much as the fashion designers believe that we can all be labeled by our waist and leg size, the truth is very few people are a perfect fit for the mass produced jeans available at the mall.
When you finally do find a pair that matches your style and body shape you need to make sure you take care of them. Clothes are not designed to last forever, but denim in particular gets softer and more form fitting over time. Getting the longest life out of your favorite pair of jeans requires patience, especially if you want to preserve the fit you worked so hard to achieve.
If you are lucky enough to find authentic vintage jeans that suit your taste then you will have to pay special attention to how you wash them. Because these jeans are older, they are more likely to tear or fade with every wash. If you use a washing machine, the best bet is to wash them inside out in cold water on the delicate cycle.
As for drying, hang dry is the gentlest approach, but you can also use the low heat setting on household dryers. Just remember that most of the wear and tear done to your clothes occurs in the dryer. If you must go this route we recommend drying them by themselves to about 80% dry. Use the hang dry method to finish the last 20% of the job.
For those who can afford it, dry cleaning is the best bet. You don’t have to get your jeans done after every wear. In fact, the dirt and oil from your body will actually help to relax the denim and make it fit better. Ideally you would have two favorite pairs that you can rotate while the other is being cleaned.
Vintage Denim Features Many Forgettable Fashions
With the recent comeback of vintage jeans in the fashion world it can be east to overlook some of the more embarrassing styles that were once a part of our social culture. Of course we all can all laugh at the bell bottom stylings of the past, but ever since they made their way back onto the scene they don’t seem as bad. Not to worry though, there are plenty of other styles to take their place as the most forgettable denim fashions of years gone by.
Acid Wash
Reaching their pinnacle in the late eighties, acid wash jeans were the most commonly found style of their time. This bleached-out look fit well with the poofy hair and neon colors of the era. The two most prominent types were the spot-bleached designs and the stone-washed textures. It is hard to say where this style got started, but it probably began with an accidental bleach spill in a college campus somewhere.
The Big Baggy Look
It has taken quite a few years for form fitting denim to come back into rotation for men, and plenty of guys still prefer a slight sag to their jeans. However, you would be hard pressed to find any sensible socialite sporting the extreme oversized jeans that were an underground sensation in the late nineties. Most popular with the hip-hop and punk rock cultures, these pants featured leg widths that were up to tens times wider than the average pair. A unique look for sure, but most people try to appear slimmer in their clothes instead enormous.
The Jean Skirt
Even though women get most of the credit for establishing fashion trends there are plenty of regrettable styles to be found in their long history. Denim skirts may one day make comeback, but we would all be surprised if the ruffled skirts of the eighties ever see the light of day again. Serving as a cross between a dress and jeans, these hybrids-gone-wrong had Madonna followers everywhere running to the mall with their credit cards in hand. Thankfully this fashion only lasted a few years.
Graffiti Jeans
How many things were wrong with hip-hop fashions of late eighties? Quite a few to be sure, but nothing tops the airbrushed masterpieces worn by many performers of this era. Whether it was your street name or a subtle political message, there was always something you could convey on your pants with airbrush art. Luckily this fad fell out of favor once people discovered they could never wash their favorite jeans without ruining their creative designs.
These are just a few examples of vintage denim fashions that have ended up in the vast graveyard of social has-beens. Of course we like to think we have learned from our past mistakes, but there will always be a telltale fashion for every generation that we would like to forget.
