Decorating Jeans and Pants
Today's clothing rage is decorated Jeans...the legs, pockets, pant areas...you name it, we are seeing it in clothing stores. And at such prices!! I have seen jeans selling for as high as 1000.00 per pair....and they sell!! Now, give me a break! If you have $ 1000.00 to spend on a pair of jeans, you have far too much money. Send it to me instead!
On the other hand, you may have several pair of un-decorated jeans in your closet...find them right now and let's get to work producing today's styles...simple, cost effect, and downright fun.
Pocket trims: I strongly suggest using either 6SS or 10SS rhinestones on pockets. Rear pockets take a beating due to sitting, abrasion, etc. Small rhinestones withstand abrasion far better than larger rhinestones, period. Just use more of them. And, I advise heat setting these rhinestones. IF you are always going to wash your jeans, then brand of rhinestone does not matter, for both Swarovski and Czech Preciosa withstand machine washing just fine, as long as you are using 6SS or 10SS. PLEASE! Take me at my word and use these sizes only on pockets...edges of front pockets, and anywhere on the seat of the pants. Set them in patterns you find pleasing...Sprays, lines, curves...whatever. I strongly suggest using a Kandi Kane to set these stones with. An iron just will not do it well. Follow the instructions on the Kandi Kane box and you will be fine. You may want to practice on scrape fabric until you get the rhythm down, it doesn't take much time to figure out what you are doing...even I can do it.
Patterns for Pockets: I would not trust my eye to set up a serious pattern, one stone at a time. You will end up with bad spacing, evil looking lines, etc. Instead, take a manila folder, mark curves, lines, etc. on the paper. Make sure the pattern is perfect on paper. Mark cross lines everywhere you want a rhinestone. IF it is to be evenly spaced, use a ruler and mark away. Now, cut out the paper on one edge of the pattern and position it where the rhinestones are to be placed. Allow the stone's width ABOVE the pattern. Now, by eye, you can place a rhinestone at every cross mark fairly accurately. Patterns can be of any design, just make sure it is perfect on the paper before you translate it to the fabric. If you want curves or swirls, get yourself a French Curve at the drug store or Office Supply. A French Curve is a plastic shape used in design, and it looks sort of like a big 'S' but with differing curves as you proceed about the French Curve. You can produce very pleasing lines using one of these devices...very easy, just try it. Practice on junk paper until you know what you are doing, then do it on the manila folder and cut away from the line as described above. I use manila because it has a good stiff body and is easily handled. If you are doing both pockets, use side 'A' for one pocket, turn the pattern over and use side 'B' to give symmetrical patterns, mirrored on the two pockets. You can use the Alternate method of Heat Transfers to align and affix rhinestones to pockets. This method will be discussed a little later, is easy, but will require the use of a heat press. More about that later.
Jeans' Legs: IF you plan on decorating with rhinestones only, I suggest you consider elaborate designs in rhinestones of 10SS and 12SS. Larger rhinestones will have a tendency to peel if you machine wash. IF you are going to hand wash only, any size will be fine on the legs. You can apply the rhinestones one by one using a Kandi Kane as you did on the pockets. Produce a pattern as above and start. But, on large patterns that wander up the side, you may want to produce transfers, or purchase them, and apply with a heat press.
Making your own transfers: Read "make your own rhinestone transfers" at this site. Follow the directions closely and you will be just fine. If you wish to purchase them, do so. Remember, repeating transfers are easy to apply. You may want to select transfers that have a 'left' and 'right' pattern for mirroring.
Most of the decorated Jeans I have seen mix rhinestones and nail heads in patterns, alternating, interweaving, complimentary, etc. You are the designer...design away. If you are going to mix rhinestone heat transfers and nail heads, you MUST apply the transfers before applying nail heads. Nail heads are mounted with their prongs being bent over and are raised to provide not only metal finish, but texture of height. You cannot apply transfers IF you have nail head height to contend with. Apply nail heads ONLY after all transfers are mounted. IF you are planning on affixing heat set rhinestones one at a time, then it does not matter in what order, or mixed order you proceed.
IF you are planning on using nail heads in your decorations, then you will find it much easier to work 'in the flat'.
If you have a sewing machine, now is the time to at least find it in the house, make sure it works, and have it ready for use later. IF you do not have one, now is the time to become new best friends with someone who owns one of these marvelous devices! And, since you have your choice of who to befriend, make sure you new best friend knows how to sew a straight seam! (crooked seams are a pet peeve of mine). IF you plan on decorating your jeans' legs with rhinestones AND nail heads (the vogue), you will find it MUCH easier to open up the outside seam of the legs to about the crotch level. That way, you can work 'in the flat' instead of trying to mount nail heads with the legs closed (forget it, go spend the 1000.00 and buy them!) DO NOT TRY to open the inside seam, as it is felded (French Seam) and will give you many headaches in trying to re-sew the seams. Usually, Jeans have a regular seam on the outer leg and a felded seam on the inside seam. IF both outer and inner seams are felded, you can still open the seam up, but you will not have a felded seam when you put it back together...that takes special equipment, and with today's sewing machines, felded seams are not necessary to avoid raveling. (Open the seam with a seam ripper... handle it carefully, do NOT cut the fabric while opening the seam. If you do not know what you are doing, find someone who does and have them show you...treat them to a cheap lunch...people will do anything for food :-)
Decorating the legs: The jeans I see on the market have rhinestone patterns up the legs, to either side of the seam. These rhinestone patterns can be anything you choose, but vines, shapes, flowers, butterflies, whatever, are what I see. Here are a few transfers that work on jeans that can be purchased:
These are presented as ideas for use. The transferred rhinestones will travel up the pant leg in lines to either side of the outer seam. You can certainly make your own transfers to your designs and apply them easily. Or, go to rhinestones.org , click on 'Iron On - Heat Set Transfers' for a full catalog of designs. Keep in mind that it will take several transfers to produce today's look of patterns going up the pant leg.
Mounting Transfers to Denim: USE A HEAT PRESS! Do not try to do this with an iron...the stones will not stick well enough to endure washing! Either arrange the transfers on the cloth and take them to a pre-arranged tee-shirt shop, pay them to use their press, OR purchase either the JP12 or JP14 heat press. IF you have several pair of jeans you are going to work on, then buy a press. If I were doing it, I would round up a bunch of friends and go in on buying the unit together, then have decorating parties. Whatever.
MOUNT THE TRANSFERS BEFORE APPLYING NAIL HEADS!!!!
Stay about 3/4" away from the outer seam of the pants on either side. You will need this margin to re-sew the pants once you are finished decorating. IF you want to get closer to the seam, talk to someone who really knows how to sew to determine the closest you can come to the seam that will be sewn back into the pants.
Applying Nail Heads:
The least expensive nail head setter is the Bedazzler (see 'Tools and Equipment'). These units run 18.95 and are certainly worth the money. They may not last forever, but nothing in life does. The Bedazzler will set 20SS, 30SS, 34SS, and 40SS nail heads. The most common sizes I see on Jeans are 20SS and 30SS. The Pearl Dome (1003) and the Flat Spot (1001) are excellent choices for jeans, as they provide metal texture and height. Choose either silver or gold. Nail Heads are not expensive, so use lots of them. Set up serious patterns for these studs...do not apply randomly, for that will not give you the look you want. Again, work out a pattern on paper. This time, translate the pattern to the jeans using a chalk pencil (sewing stores, called marking chalk pencil). Once you start applying nail heads, you will see why I advised opening up the jeans' legs.
IF you plan on using larger rhinestones on the legs, I suggest 20SS. Mount them with tiffany mounts instead of heat setting. The Bedazzler will set 20SS with tiffany mounts. Once mounted, you can dry clean your jeans. IF you plan on dry cleaning, make sure the pockets are decorated with ONLY Swarovski heat set 6SS and/or 10SS rhinestones, for the heat melt glue of Swarovski will withstand dry cleaning whereas other brands will not. Do NOT mount rhinestones on pockets with tiffany mounts! The prongs will snag fabric you sit on, bend the mounts, stones will fall out, and you may tear fabric you are sitting on.
Now it is time to re-sew the side seams. Line up the seams carefully, right side of fabric to right side of fabric, baste in place with either pins or long running hand stitching. Do not allow the fabric to slip out of place. Place on sewing machine and use a medium length stitch, sew. If you have a serger (Overcast) machine, overcast the denim edges to prevent raveling. If you have only a sewing machine, use a zigzag stitch, half on the fabric, half off and run the entire length of the edge. This will bind the fabric edge. Turn right side out and your new jeans are ready to wear.
The above suggestions sound much harder than the work itself...be brave, dive in and do it. We carry all the materials you will need to produce your designer jeans...rhinestones, nail heads, and all tools needed. Have some fun, it's only money.
There is no such thing as 'tastefully decorated' jeans. Rhinestones and taste just cannot be mixed in the same sentence...go for it, have a great time creating your designer jeans. Be the talk of your crowd. When they ask, "where did you get your new jeans," just say, "you can't afford them." And leave it at that :-)
Phil Brandt