DO IT YOURSELF

Once I set out to transform some old boyfriend jeans into a totally new design. I like transforming the look of old clothes, breathing new life into them and using them in new stylings and new ways to wear them.

I saw some jeans decorated with cherry blossom and white paint on a website and instantly fell in love with them. When I looked more closely to see where I could buy them, I discovered that they were by the denim brand RJP – Rialto Jean Project, which specialises in hand painted jeans. All good and well, but the jeans cost 500 US dollars (partly because Blake Lively wears them), which I really wasn’t about to spend, so I decided to make my own hand painted jeans.

You will need: Various fabric paints (white, light and dark pink, brown and green), 3 paint brushes of various sizes, Old jeans.

Transforming old jeans

I am very pleased with the results; I’ve got completely new and unique jeans, which cost less than 20 euros.

I wanted the jeans to look like they had been spattered with white paint from decorating, so I first gave them a good covering of white fabric paint. I used a larger paint brush to put a decent amount of paint onto the jeans. I was working on my dining table, so first I made sure it was well protected with polyvinyl. When the paint on one side had dried (this took half a day), I carried on to paint the cherry blossom. I chose three places, where I drew branches and flowers, which then dried overnight.

The next day I repeated the process on the other side. When the paint had dried properly, I ironed the jeans thoroughly, with a cloth between the jeans and the iron so that the paint was not transferred onto the iron.