Frayed Denim Patch With Stitches

Frayed Denim Patch With Stitches

Posted In : Graphic Design

In this Photoshop tutorial we will be creating a denim textured patch with stitching. This technique uses the Fill command, a few artistic filters, Wind and a few basic layer styles.

In this Photoshop tutorial we will be creating a denim textured patch with stitching. This technique uses the Fill command, a few artistic filters, Wind and a few basic layer styles.
Step 1

Hey gang! Today’s tutorial is a little bit on the digital scrapbooking side, but there are some really great tricks along the way, so lets open up a new document and get started. Mine is 540×300 at 72ppi.

The first thing we want to do is create the denim background which we’ll be working with. Now, we could go through the hast le of creating layers of fibers and complex patterns, but Photoshop has a great denim pattern built right in.

Create a new layer and from the main menu choose Edit>Fill which will bring up the Fill dialog box. Choose Pattern from the Contents option then select the swatch to open the Custom Pattern selector. There is a little arrow in a circle at the top right corner of the Custom Pattern Selector and if you click it a nice long menu of options appears. The pattern set we want to load is called Patterns 2. You can either append (tack these patterns onto the bottom of all the custom patterns you’ve already got loaded), or you can just click OK to replace all the current patterns with this new pattern set.

With the pattern set loaded, find the pattern called Denim and click OK.
Step 2

If you did everything right you’ll have a stage full of denim.

Press the M key to switch to the Rectangular Marquee tool and drag out a selection where you want your denim patch to live.
Step 3

With our selection made, lets now switch over to the Channels tab in the Layers Palette. (*note: If your layers palette isn’t visible choose Window>Layers from the main menu.)

Now lets click on the little button at the bottom of the Channels palette called Save Selection As Channel. This will create a new Alpha channel from our selection.

Click on the new Alpha 1 layer then Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.
Step 4

Now we’re going to add a few filters to this Alpha Channel. The first effect will give us a little bit of edge grunge. Choose Filter>Filter Gallery to pull up all the available filters. From the Sketch styles choose Conte Crayon with the following settings.
Step 5

If you followed along like a good little monkey your Alpha Channel should now look like this.
Step 6

Now it’s time to add the second filter to our Alpha Channel. From the main menu choose Filter>Stylize>Wind to bring up the Wind options dialog where you will choose Wind and From The Right from the options and click OK.

Now repeat this step except this time choose From The Left which will give you this final result.
Step 7

Lets create a selection of our Alpha Channel by holding down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key and clicking on the layer thumbnail of the Alpha 1 Channels Layer.

Switch back to the Layers tab in the Layers palette and choose the Denim layer we created earlier.
Step 8

Create a Layer Mask of this selection by choosing the Create Layer mask icon from the bottom of the Layers palette (*note: it’s the one that looks like a rectangle with a circle inside it.)
Step 9

Now with the Layer Mask selected, use a black brush to paint down the right and left edges where the Wind filter was applied until the ends look more like realistic threads fraying from the piece of denim. Remember that the edges don’t have to be even.
Step 10

Add a slight drop shadow to this layer.
Step 11

We will now color the right and left edges white to create the look of fraying thread.

Create a new layer and call it Edges. If you hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key and click and drag the layer mask from the Denim layer up to the new Edges layer, it will make a copy of that Layer Mask on the Edges layer.
Step 12

Making sure the layer thumbnail (and not the Layer Mask) is selected by clicking on it, use a white brush to paint along the edges of the fabric until your edges look like the ones below.
Step 13

Create a new layer above the Edges layer called Stitches. Press U to select the Custom Shape tool and from the fly out menu choose the Rounded Rectangle Tool. Make sure that the drawing style is set to Paths in the Options toolbar as shown below.
Step 14

Drag out a nice sized path for our stitches to follow.
Step 15

Press the B key to invoke the Brush tool and choose the brush called Charcoal Flat from the Brushes menu. Set the Master Diameter to 12px and the Hardness to 100%.
Step 16

Open the Brushes window from the main menu (Window>Brushes) and make the following adjustments.

Step 17

Now that the brush is all set up, press the P key to invoke the Pen tool and Control-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the Rounded Rectangular path we placed on the stage in Step 14. From the menu that pops up choose Stroke Path and then choose Brush. Because of the settings that we made in Step 16 when we stroke the path with the brush it places perfectly spaced stitches which follow our path exactly.

If you wish to hide the path at this point simply press Command-H (PC: Ctrl-H).
Step 18

Add a slight Bevel and Emboss layer style with the following settings and then drop the Stitches layer Fill opacity down to 70% to tone down the stitching a little bit.
Step 19

The last thing I might do is go back to our Denim layer and add a Satin layer style to give the denim a little more realistic tonal variation like this:
Step 20

And there you go kids! Another fun Photoshop tutorial and a few more tools you’ve now got a little experience with. Great Job!

31 Comments

  • Orland  SAID:

    awesome tutorial. Thank you so much for your time to put together this wonderful tutorials. Peace

  • HERO  SAID:

    Orland,
    Thanks so much for the comment. All the time I spend on the site is worth it when I have people like you come visit.

  • Dedra  SAID:

    Hero- wow. I can think of so many uses for this. Thanks for posting this for us.

  • HERO  SAID:

    It’s my pleasure Dedra. I’m glad you liked it.

  • pleazourwolf  SAID:

    WOw hun ty sooo very much! lol I’m new to learning photoshop so things get alittle crazy. But you made this dummie proof hun really tyvm stay blessed Pleazourwolf!!!! BIGG UPS TO U!

  • Learning  SAID:

    Thanks for this great tutorial however I can’t seem to evoke the same brush tool as you.. waaa :-( and I do not seem to have the same brushes either.. any suggestions? Thanks again.. still learning. :-)

  • Learning  SAID:

    I managed to find the brush but there is no option for spacing.. please help. :-) Thanks.

  • Learning  SAID:

    Hi again.. finally found that too, haha.. bye :-)

  • Lily  SAID:

    Great tutorial. Just wanted to let you know incase you want to fix it, in step 6 you’ve got “choose from the right” twice instead of “choose from the left” the second time.

  • HERO  SAID:

    LILY,
    Thanks for catching that! I’ve fixed it.

  • Nok  SAID:

    Thank you so much for sharing this tutorial. !

  • CradledFiction  SAID:

    Thank you so much for this great tutorial! It was exactly what I needed for the layout for my new domain; I’ll be linking back to your site once I get mine up and running again.

    -Anni aka CradledFiction

  • Tess  SAID:

    Was sent to you from NBK and I’m a beginner. I do think that I might have a chance after trying to learn PS for quite sometime. Your tutorials are graphic and it helps a lot to follow albeit I do it slowly! Hope you do more and THANKS A LOT!

  • tchild  SAID:

    I came across this site a few weeks back and thought it to be one killer site…..LOVE this work. Will we see any work on cs4?

  • HERO  SAID:

    TCHILD,
    Glad you like the site! And yes, I’ll be starting work on some CS4 lessons in the near future, though I like to give my readers a little time to get the program before I start putting out tutorials that only a handful of them are equipped to try. I’ll probably mix them in here and there as time progresses. Thanks for asking!

  • shona tiger  SAID:

    Thank you for your tuts, always learn a great deal about how to use photoshop (not to mention my enjoyment of the dry humour that’s often hidden in them). Rather like the new look to the site- the header is also something I learnt in one of your tuts :) Please keep ‘em coming.

  • MD  SAID:

    One of the realy detailed and well explained tutorials, hope to see more .
    Thanks .

  • PS Quilter  SAID:

    Making lots of monkey sounds over this one. LOL
    Thanks HERO for taking the time to share this!

    I’ll be glad to stop by and read more of your tuts.
    Thanks :)

  • Subash Aryal  SAID:

    Thanks for the great stitching technique ! I used in text.. :-)

  • Wynd  SAID:

    also how might i get the top and bottom edges frayed if i was going for a patch look?

  • HERO  SAID:

    WYND, Since the Wind filter only “blows” from the right or left, you’ll need to rotate your patch 90 degrees (Edit>Transform>Rotate 90), apply Wind from the right and left and then rotate the patch back to it’s original position.

  • Efren  SAID:

    Hi Hero,

    I think your page is the best photoshop tutorials page I have found so far and I like the style of all the graphics that you create. I have done this one, but at 300 dpi since I want to use the denim style for a brochure, but when I print it looks different and you cannot see the pattern and the stitches are very small. What I have done wrong?

    Thanks

  • HERO  SAID:

    EFREN, Because you’re working in 300ppi instead of 72, everything you make will need to be sized up accordingly. Bigger stitches, and you’ll need to increase the size of the pattern by actually applying it to a layer instead of as a fill. In the Pattern Overlay layer style dialog there is a slider for pattern size.

  • Sabine  SAID:

    Also a very great tutorial. But also one question, where do i get the brush you use?
    Hugs
    Sabine

  • HERO  SAID:

    SABINE, The brush used in the tutorial is one of brushes included with Photoshop. If you don’t see it in your brushes palette load the Calligraphic Brush Set from the default brush sets.

  • Sabine  SAID:

    Thank you so much :) and thank you for your great Tutorials.
    Hugs
    Sabine

  • MAsum  SAID:

    coooooolllll! what a great tutorial awesome tutorial. i was looking for this type of tutorial. nice job.keep it up!

  • Ceejays  SAID:

    Great learning tut for me. Thanks so much for your great tutorial.

  • V2  SAID:

    I can see why you call yourself hero. This is top notch stuff man, I’m blown away.

    I found the charcoal flat as a Dry Media brush, however. Maybe its a CS3 thing? either way, no biggie :)

  • jonny  SAID:

    this is so helpful yall

  • Chris  SAID:

    wow is all I can say. I have learned so much from all of your tutorials. When I forget, I pop back to one of the tutorials and apply it to what i am working on. Thank you for helping us explore the tools and fun that can be had with CS3!!

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