Refashion – Painted Cutoffs

Cutoffs are probably the oldest or at least the most common refashion in the history of denim. I've had this pair of jeans for a while. I always felt like the length was just a little too short and rarely wore them. So, I couldn't resist cutting them up, grabbing some paint and going to town. It's really very quick and easy to do and will give your cutoffs a little extra flair.

 On the front, I painted the inner left pocket gold and just a little strip on the left granny apple green. I think my favorite part might be that gold pocket. It kind of makes me want to paint everything gold.

For the back, I painted gold lightening bolts and thin stripes of green on the pockets.

How to make your own painted cutoffs

Supplies:

Jeans

Fabric Paint (I used metallic and "Granny Apple" gold)

Paintbrush

Freezer Paper

Artist's Tape

Instructions:
1. Decide how short you want your shorts and cut off those pant legs! Remember, if you don't want to end up with booty shorts, it's better to err on the side of longer and cut more later if you need to.

2. Use artist's tape and/or freezer paper to mask off the parts that you don't want painted. To use the freezer paper, cut the shape that you want to protect and iron it smooth side down on the fabric. For this design, I lightly traced the shape of the pocket onto the freezer paper then drew the design that I wanted to paint. Next I cut up the paper and ironed it down.


3. Let the paint dry and peel off the tape and freezer paper. I went through a few rounds of taping, painting and drying to get these right. Heat set the paint if necessary.

4. Cuff your shorts if desired. I folded mine up twice and tacked it in place using a zig zag stitch on the sewing machine. You can also leave them loose and frayed.