Why learn how to fray jeans? While you can buy manufactured frayed jeans, it's easier and cheaper to fray them yourself. All you need is a pair of new jeans, measuring tape, scissors, a comb or wire brush and sandpaper.

Prepare The Jeans
Start out by washing and drying the jeans. This is especially important if the jeans are brand new, but it is also important if you are working with previously worn jeans. Washing and drying the jeans makes them easier to work with.

Measure Your Desired Fray Length
Make sure to be certain about the length of your fray because, once you cut the jeans, you can't go back. Use a ruler to make a straight line with a pencil across the front of the jeans. If you are fraying dark jeans, you can use a white pencil so you can see the line.

After you've made your measurement, you'll need to cut the jeans to create the new length, or at least trim the edge of the existing hem. You need to cut below the fray line, or your fray will be too high.

Fray The Edges Of The Pants
You can either have a subtle fray along the length of the pants, or you can create an entire frayed fringe to create fringed shorts. If you are just fraying the edges, you can use a comb or wire brush to fray the hem gently. If you're creating frayed shorts, you might need to be more aggressive with your tool. A comb or wire brush can be used to pull out specific threads and encourage the fray.

Add A Wear-And-Tear Look To The Rest Of The Jeans
In addition to fraying the edges, you can also break in the jeans and make them more wearable. Use fine grit sand paper along the back pockets, on the knees and on the hips of the jeans to soften these spots. You can look at an old pair of jeans to get some ideas about the places to wear down your jeans.

Final Steps
Once you've completed the fraying process and have touched up all the places you want with sandpaper, you should wash the jeans again so that you can see how they'll turn out. The artificial fraying that you did will get better with more washes and look more natural as you wear the jeans.