DIY Bandier Jeans — Catherine Browne

Jul 17

Jul 17 DIY Bandier Jeans

Watch the design process in my first Tik Tok below!

I’ve been looking for a fun creative project for the last few weeks and decided to paint a pair of jeans. One of my favorite online stores - Bandier - has a pair for sale that retails for $280, and I’ve been dying to get them. Rather than spend an arm and a leg, I bought acrylic paint and got to work. Francisco gave me a few pairs of old jeans that were perfect for the project. I loved the color of the jeans and the genuine “boyfriend” fit.

Tools

This is what I used to complete the project: acrylic paint set with brushes, painter’s tape, fabric medium, hair dryer, ruler, & scissors.

Steps

I marked the lines about 2 inches apart with painter’s tape on the back of each leg. Using a ruler, I measured 8 inch sections for the blocks of color. I would have liked to do a layer of white paint underneath, but the kit only came with a small tube of white paint. I mixed 1 part fabric medium with 1 part paint in order to keep the color on the jeans. Fabric medium increases the launderability of painted jeans (we’ll see how true this holds 🧐). Finally, I blow dried the paint to activate the medium and lock in the colors. The paint dried within a few hours!

Hem Line

The next day, I realized I forgot to hem the pants first (whoops 😅). I recommend starting with this step. However, I don’t mind how it turned out. I did a straight hem with about two inches extra taken off in the front. They are trendy jeans so I had to go with a fun hem.

Final Results

I’m so happy with how the pants turned out. Outside of Covid, I would wear these to brunch with sneakers and a cool purse and feel like a star on Melrose.

As promised… my first Tik Tok! 😛