Red, White, and Upcycled

It only seemed appropriate to make my first tutorial patriotic seeing as 4th of July is right around the corner and nothing says patriotic like a pair of American flag shorts :)                                                                                                                                                     

For this project I used an old pair of shorts that I made from jeans summers ago and bleached (future tutorial?). This set me up for a perfect white background for my American flag :) Although denim would look great as well!

Disclaimer: Since I created these shorts before starting my blog I don't have all the pictures I probably should! So if you have any questions just shoot me a message or comment below :) You are such understanding people! :)

Using my handy dandy chevron template (found here), I lightly traced the pattern onto one side of my shorts. I did it at an angle to add a little creative flare. Since my shorts were white, I just used a pencil; if you use denim shorts, you may have to use a pen or something. After tracing the chevrons onto my shorts, I used frog tape to tape off my pattern, as well as the parts of the shorts I didn't want to get paint on, like the pocket, top band, and the folded over bottom part.

Taping the corners of the chevron pattern was a little tricky. So here's how I created the right angle for my corners.

Tada! That darn chevron template is so handy :)

 Here are my shorts once I got them taped off :) Oh and I put a piece of cardboard between the layers of my shorts in case the paint went through.
 Using normal acrylic paint, I filled in the spaces of my pattern with red.

Oh look! There's Kyle :) tehe 

Here is one of those points were I don't have pictures. For the other half of my shorts, I cut out 5 stars. I drew them like I learned in elementary school and made them a couple different sizes. I really didn't want them to look perfect. If you prefer some perfect starts you could print them and then cut them out.

I used this fancy tumble dye stuff that I bought forever ago for the blue side of my shorts. I put tape on the back of my cut outs and placed them on my shorts. I also frog taped the parts of my shorts I didn't want painted again on this side. Then I just sprayed the dye over the stars.

I only used this stuff because I happened to have it laying around the house. Blue acrylic paint would work as well! Oooor if you are using denim shorts just paint the stars on with white paint.

Once everything dried, I removed my tape. The red and white side turned out great! The blue star side...not so much. A lot of my dye leaked through my stars and the tape protecting the other parts of my shorts. Darn you fancy tumble dye! To fix this, I just used white acrylic paint to  fill in the stars, so they didn't have blue splotches. I then sprayed the waistband and folded bottom part with the dye, since it had leaked here as well. Trying to cover up my mistakes... In the end, I really wish I hadn't had to do this, but oh well, tis life :)

After finishing the front of my shorts, I decided I wanted to put some red and white chevrons on the back pockets as well. I used the same method for the chevrons on the back as I did on the front. You're smart, I'm sure you can figure it out ;)

And here is the finished project! :)

Here is the outfit I plan to wear Friday ;)

 Too much?? Haha Go 'Murca! 

Happy 4th of July! :)