So it's time for another dyed and studded piece. I'm still surprised how popular they still are. I think it's because it's something that can be extremely individual. You can't really walk into a store at the mall and find truly rad dyed and studded shorts, without paying up the ass. Anyways, I decided to do the double dip dye, shredded and studded, all in one.
First off, gather materials. Choose two color dyes that compliment each other, I chose purple and pink. Grab some studs, a cup of salt (not pictured), and a bottom clothing hanger. Also something that is VERY important, use bleached or white denim. I bleached these from black. Yeah, they were black. All you do is get a bucket, fill it 1/4 of the way with bleach, the rest water, dump, wash, done. Easy as pie, I swear.
Next, get your dye bath ready with the salt and powder. It's up to you which end to start on. Fold your shorts and hang them, making sure that they are already dripping wet. Then, dip them about 1/3 of the way. You can dip them a little more, but only for a minute at most.
Alright, you have to leave your shorts hanging for a while as they soak. It's up to you how you do this, but I used a bra strap to hanging to suspend the shorts. It worked so well. I could adjust the strap to make is shorter or longer.
Rinse out the dye from your shorts, or an easier way is to just immediately throw them in the washer. What results is the picture below: an ombre effect.
Do the same exact thing, but upside down. And with the other dye. Remember to wet your shorts before dying them to help the ombre effect as well as the dye to have a better reaction with the fabric. With this step, however, leave a little space in the middle. It should be somewhat white in the middle. Don't worry, when you throw them in the washer again, the white part is no longer there and the two colors mix, creating that ombre effect from pink to purple.
For the slashed parts, I can't stress enough to make sure your shorts have long pockets. Otherwise your underwear will be showing and I don't want anymore hoochie mamas walkin' around because of me!
Use an exacto knife to cut a small, parallel incision in the shorts. Cut them about an inch and them rip them carefully. I promise the shorts wont rip in an awkward direction, it rips straight. But be careful! Don't rip off the whole leg!
What results is this. Yeah, it might look bland now, but guess what the next step is? THROW THEM IN THE WASHER! Yeah, sorry about the excess water usage.
I studded the pocket (which is almost a classic to me) and there ya go! Some ombre studded/ripped shorts. I know the picture below doesn't show the color difference to well, but look at the picture above. That's what they really look like. Other color suggestions I have are blue/green, red/pink, yellow/light blue, pretty much any two pastel colors, blue/purple and those are just the basic colors! You can really let your mind go with this one. Have fun!
Song of the Day: "Start Me Up" by the Rolling Stones
