How to create an ombré effect on denim

This project will show you how to take an ordinary pair of jeans and kick them up a notch. Ombré is found everywhere from hairstyles to home wares, and denim is very well-suited to experimentation.

You will need about 1c of household bleach for this project. I didn't use an entire cup at once, but spread it out over the course of the process in varying concentrations.

You may want to use a cotton swab as a tool for creating more of a "bleach splatter" effect.

I mixed the bleach and water in a tall bucket so as to minimize spills and keep the top of my jeans dry.

These jeans already had a "bleach stain" effect. I used a cotton swab to accentuate this.

I poured a small amount of bleach in the bottle's cap - this would be used for finer detailing.

These jeans had a few stains as well - I used bleach to hide them.

I thought they could use a little more detail on the top to balance out the ombré bottoms.

I want the ombré to start just below where the knee will sit in the jeans.

I used about 1/4c bleach for the first round of bleaching, combined with about 5L of water.

I used warm water for the bleaching process, first filling the bucket about halfway. The concentration was fairly low, so that the uppermost part of the ombré would fade gradually.

I dipped the jeans in leg-first...

And allowed them to rest over the side with the water reaching just under the knee-area.

After about 20 minutes, I started the second round. This time, I used more bleach and less water...

And 20 minutes later, I began round three with even MORE bleach and LESS water. On subsequent rounds, I allowed less of the jeans to make contact with the water, to create a gradual fade.

After 20 minutes, I rinsed the jeans with cold water, wrung them out and hung them to dry.

The final result - a gradual fade. Cheers!

All red everything. Feat. DIY ombré :)