DIY Polka Dotted Jeans

Jeans: Old Navy (DIY), Sweater: Gap, Shirt: JCrew (thrifted, similar), Shoes: Jack Purcell, Purse: Kate Spade (similar), Jewelry: c/o Excessory Exchange, Sunnies: Ray Ban

It is a fine art layering a thin sweater over a shirt. I have yet to fully master it. I love the look of layered tops, but it probably adds about 10 minutes to the time it takes to get ready in the morning. Plus all the constant readjusting throughout the day. Oh, the price we pay for fashion.

So, I have been contemplating making my own polka dotted jeans for a while now. I love love love the Marc Jacobs version, but definitely not the $200 price tag. I'm sorry, I am not a girl that is going to drop 2 bills on a pair of jeans that are probably going go out of style by next summer. I remember buying a pair of glitter jeans in high school and spent like 60 whole dollars on them!  And I wore them maybe 3 times. What a waste.

These jeans, on the other hand, only cost me about $21.50 ($20 for the jeans, $1.50 for the paint).

Materials:
Jeans, the more distressed the better
White fabric paint (not dimensional paint like Puffy Paint)
Sponge brush
Circular stencil

Direction:
1. Test the paint on an inner seam of the jeans. If you want it more transparent, add water until it is the desired color.
2. Lay jeans out flat on a hard, covered surface.
3. Place the stencil over the jeans, and press the wet brush over the stencil opening. Do not brush side to side, but stipple up and down.
4. Move the stencil to different spots on the jeans until you have all the dots you desire.
5. Allow the front of the jeans to dry completely, about 30 minutes, then add dots to the back.
6. Let the jeans dry over night for at least 24 hours (preferably 72) before washing as usual.

Linking up for What I Wore Wednesday, Random Wednesday, Wildcard Wednesday, Pinterest Power Party

Guest Post: DIY Recovered Porch Chairs

Today on of my beautiful sponsors, Rebecca, is sharing her chair cover DIY project. This couldn't come at a better time. Now that the weather is warming up, all I can think about it what to do with our little patio. Her project turned out so well, I am definitely inspired to try to recover chairs of my own.

I'll let Rebecca take it away, because she is a much better write than I. But when you are done, go check her out here, here, and here because she's awesome!!

Hi y’all! My name is Rebecca and I blog over at Caravan Sonnet! I am so excited to be here today and have loved getting to know Lindsey better this month. Isn’t she so sweet? I love her posts and am honored to be a sponsor! Isn’t that a wonderful part of bloggy world: the wonderful opportunity to meet some fantastic people! It is definitely my favorite part! *smiles* One of the things that I love are Lindsey’s DIY posts! I love thrifting and DIY’ing and today I thought I would share about some Goodwill porch chairs that my mom and I made over for our camp porch.

For a number of years our porch housed wonderful chairs that have been passed down through four generations that had been quaint but it didn’t provide a very comfortable sitting area. Enter in a wonderful find at Goodwill! Don't you just love thrifting? My mom and I found the chairs for the porch at a half price Thanksgiving Sale at Goodwill in 2010. There were four large chairs and three matching footstools. While they were in "struggling" condition we knew with a little lot of love and a lot of work we would show the treasure that they were! It took some time to wash, clean the chairs, repair rips in the fabric, paint, and get everything set up but after two summers the porch has come together like a dream! *smiles*

The first thing that we did was to take out the original stuffing from the cushions and then wash every cover (twice!). I had done some research and had learned that it was best to stuff pre-made fabric cushions while the fabric is still damp. This allows the fabric and the stuffing to mold together. I am not going to lie it took some energy to stuff those cushions!

After we stuffed the cushions we set them in the sun to dry while we went to work on vacuuming the chairs and washing the wood. We took wood paint and touched up the areas that needed to be touched up. Finally, we took muslin and covered the holes of a couple of the chairs.  It took us two summers to transport the chairs to our cabin in New York and to complete the above process but it was definitely worth it. In those two years I also found some additional (small) pillows that matched the chairs (at a Goodwill in another state!) and found some material that we made into additional pillows. Isn't the final product delightful?

 

Thanks so much for reading along today! I would love to meet y’all! To me the best thing about blogging is meeting others! I look forward to meeting y’all! Have a wonderful day!

A Lucky Shirt

I have seen those mantra shirts everywhere.  Manifesto tees are some of my favorite, but not a huge fan of the price tag. So I thought I would try to make one myself. And it is so incredibly easy!

Materials:

T-shirt - I used an old American Apparel shirt and this bleached a lot easier than some old generic brand t-shirt I had left over from college.
Clorox Bleach Pen - I got this at Target in the laundry section near the detergent, not the bleach.
Chalk - or other washable writing tool
A piece of cardboard or plastic - Really anything to place inside the shirt so the bleach doesn't seep through.

Process:

1. Write your word or saying (or design) on the shirt in chalk.

2. Place your cardboard or plastic on the inside of the shirt under where your design will go.

3. When you are happy with the design, write over the chalk with the bleach pen. Make sure to read the directions on the back of the pen before you start. For instance, you will need to shake up the pen before using, or else it will be to runny. Let the bleach sit on the shirt for 10-20 minutes, or until the color fades. Note that depending on the shirt, the bleach may not completely remove the color and may only lighten it.

4. Rinse the bleach out of the shirt with cold water, then wash and dry as usual.

I will definitely be doing this again. Maybe for Christmas I will try to take on something like Lauren Conrad's Ho! Ho! Ho! sweatshirt.