I'm in distress! {DIY distressed denim, that is}

A few days ago, I took some before and after shots of a denim skirt that I distressed myself. I was super proud, not only of the skirt when I was finished, but also of the pics I took. Good lighting? Check. Good shot of my tools? Check. Good demo shots? Check. Good before? Check. Good after shot? Check.

But, I deleted them before I loaded them to my computer. Sigh. I'm super frustrated but I know that each and every one of you has been there. Anyway, I took a couple of pics and tried to recreate but I can't get that "before" pic back.

These are the tools that I used:

• tiny, spiky part of cheese grater (I guess for zesting, but I have a zester for that)
• sanding block (I used a medium grit because thats what I had)
• pumice stone
• seam ripper
• block of wood (in my case, its an old cutting board that has a horse stencil on the reverse side...I just brought it from my mom's house because it was a decoration from my nursery. I knew it'd be useful for SOMETHING but this wasn't really what I had in mind :-)

I found all of these tools to be useful but the sanding block was by far my fave. They key was to sand in one direction so it took out the horizontal threads, leaving behind the white vertical threads.

I was able to be a little more daring on the pockets because I didn't have to worry about making a hole that you could see my skin through (I AM in my 30s and a mother of two. There has to be a little modesty up in here). The shot above is where I used the grater. It works really well for tearing out the threads but I didn't have as much control. The seam ripper was better allowing me to be more specific in my placement of the tears.

Also, in the pic above you can see why the wood is helpful. It allows you to stretch the fabric tight and keeps you from sanding/grating your fingers. Ouch!

I also turned the bottom of the skirt up about 3/4 of an inch. I did this to show a little of the lighter denim back (and show a little more leg...forget that thing I said earlier about modesty). At first I was going to sew it but didn't have any navy thread so I just used fusible tape. And I washed it twice and it stayed put (super sweet!).

I used the seam ripper to fray the edges and the pumice stone to create the little white faux creases that are there from sitting.

The last thing I did was wash it to lighten up the I'm-so-over-it indigo color. And I washed it with BLEACH. I know. Scary. I hesitated to "ruin" my skirt but realized that I wasn't wearing it anymore because it seemed outdated. But I SO wanted to make it work because its the perfect skirt! Why, you ask? Because its a skort. That's right. I'm not 5 but I still wear skorts. A skort is SO awesome when you have two little kids. No worrying about showing your business when you bend over (back to the modesty...don't wanna pull a Britney) for the umpteenth million time to pick up a toy or when sitting on the floor playing with the kiddaroos. I wanted this skirt to be part of my wardrobe and I wanted to love it.

And now I do.