Something that I have always enjoyed doing was putting my own creative twist on simple pieces of clothing. My favorite place to find articles of clothing for repurposing is any thrift shop; not only does it save money but also results in a one of a kind piece. Within my fashion merchandising class, we have been discussing the negative consequences of the fast fashion industry (In-depth blog post about this coming soon!) on retailers and people all over the world. In correlation to this reality, we were given the challenge to defy the trend of fast fashion by re-purposing/re-inventing an article of clothing within our wardrobes. I decided to take an old pair of black mom jeans and turn them into a trendy statement piece. Not only did I have fun doing this but I couldn’t be happier with the results! If you’re curious as to how I did it and what the final product looks like then keep scrolling! 🙂
Starting from the beginning, I chose these pants because I wanted to use simple black jeans so there would be a lot of options for what I could do to them! After lots of brain storming and Pinterest scrolling, I decided that I wanted to create a chain-effect going down the sides of each pant leg by using eyelet grommets and circular jewelry links.
The first step within this process was to take an Exacto knife and cut open the outside seam of each pant leg.
The next step was to evenly space the groomets on my pants and then using a white fabric marker, I traced the inner circle so I would know where the grommets needed to be inserted. Once I had the white circles marked on the front and back of the outside pants seems, I then took and Exacto knife and created perferations for the grommets to go into.
Once the holes were made, it was time to insert the grommets! Initially, this procedure seemed tedious but after figuring out how to insert them it was smooth sailing! The insertion of groomets requires 5 items: the grommet head and bottom(mandrel/anvil pair), a mallet/hammer, and then two specialty pieces that are included with grommet kits: knurled body and setting tool.
The first step for inserting grommets is to put the head/mandrel through the whole with the large part on the exterior and the protruding part through the hole. Next, I took the bottom/anvil and place on the protruding side of the head; this is what will make the finished grommet but we must use the other devices mentioned to bind it to the jeans. The knurled body is the thick, cylinder metal block that goes on the ground (hard/flat surface) with the head/mandrel facing down onto it. The top of grommet  was placed face down onto the knurled body and the next step was to place the setting tool on top of the bottom/anvil. Now that there was a sandwich of metals in between the jeans, it was time to take the mallet and mash it all together! With evenly distributed force, I hammered the top of the setting tool which forced the top and bottom of the grommet together with the jeans. The results looked like this:
I repeated this process for each perforation I made ( 24 on each side, total of 48 holes) and then once they were all installed it was time to add the chain links. A struggle I experienced with this was finding jewelry jump rings large and sturdy enough for this project. With little luck on finding this specific type of jump ring, I decided that key chain rings would be the most efficient and durable material for this. With 24 rings, I inserted them into the grommets of each side which created the chain effect:
After completing that step, I was finished! I’m in love with the final product and will definitely get a lot of use from these pants!
Femme Fatale 