Stretchy jeans are the best for laddering. Get tighter jeans if you’re going for a sensual look. Get baggier jeans if you are going for the “tomboy” look.
Use a 220 or higher sand paper when distressing your jeans.
The line on the side seam should be half an inch (1. 27 cm) or smaller. You can also choose to ladder other parts of the jean including the back pockets and side seams. Decide on if you want the ladder to be above, below, or covering your entire knee. You must decide on how large you want the rips in your jeans to be and how many rips you want.
The vertical white threads in your jeans are called weft threads and should be left intact to create the ladder. When laddering on smaller parts of the jean like the side seam or back pocket, measure a half inch (1. 27 cm) up instead of an entire inch from your initial cut.
If you want larger gaps in between your ladder, you can pull some white threads as well. [8] X Research source