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Quote About Dandelions

"You fight dandelions all weekend, and late Monday afternoon there they are, pert as all get out, in full and gorgeous bloom, pretty as can be, thriving as only dandelions can in the face of adversity."

-- Hal Borland

Friday, June 13, 2014

{A Tutorial} Star Spangled Shorts


Last weekend, The Gentleman treated me to a mini shopping spree at Rue 21. I browsed through the store and found a few items I liked and then these shorts caught my eye:


But then the price tag of $24.95 caught my eye too, and I turned them down. I've seen enough DIY shorts that there was no way I was going to pay $25 for a pair! So a few days later I went home, gathered the materials I'd need, and got to work.





What you'll need:
  • A pair of shorts/pants that fit. (I cut off the legs of some knee-length shorts; you can do the same with a pair of pants.)
  • Fabric scissors
  • Red, white, and blue acrylic paint
  • Glitter to match the paint. I chose not to add glitter to my white paint. 
  • Textile medium
  • Paintbrushes
  • Water to clean the brushes in
  • Something on which to put the paint - I used old plastic container lids
  • Masking tape
  • A piece of cardboard that will fit inside your short's legs
  • Star shapes - I used wooden ones but stickers would probably work even better
  • Rags for clean-up
Step 1: Roll the legs to the length you'll wear the shorts


Step 2: Using the masking tape, mark off the places you DON'T want paint. I chose to alternate the stripes on the legs to make them look more like a flag.


Step 3: Pour a small amount of textile medium on your paint-palettes.


Step 4: Useing the textile medium's ratio of medium-to-paint (mine was 1:2), pour paint on the palettes.



Step 5: Add Glitter!



Step 6: Mix it all up.


Step 7: Place the cardboard in a pants-leg and paint. Repeat for other leg.


Step 8: Allow paint to dry - I totally cheated by using a hairdryer to speed this up - then remove the tape.



Step 9: Flip the shorts over and then lay out the stars - I only had two to work with. More would be better.


Step 10: Paint! I only painted around the stars, but you could fill the gaps in, if you so choose.


Step 11: Clean up - here's where your rag will come in handy. 

Steps 12-14: My textile medium's instructions were to allow the paint to dry for 24 hours, dry-iron the paint, allow the paint to sit again for 24 hours, and then wash the shorts inside-out. I will do this, but I wanted to go on and sneak a few photos...




Ta-Da!

You could always add rhinestones or more glitter or change the way you paint the shorts. The whole point is to make something you love!

Update: After the paint dried I noticed that it was very scratchy and I was worried that it was going to stay that way. After washing and drying it, however, it has softened and feels just fine. Also, the glitter stayed just fine!

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