Suzanne Carillo

I’ve had a DIY project on my mind for a while now and when my sister and nieces came to visit last week I was able to finally able to turn a jean jacket into wearable art.

I’ve painted on jeans for years. I once had a fantastic jean jacket I handed painted inside with the image of Jim Morrison. I really wish I hadn’t given that jacket away.

I have kept t-shirts I’ve painted along with jeans and shorts from years past. It was in the late 80’s and early 90’s that I did the most painting on fabric so returning to this medium wasn’t a huge leap for me.

For my two nieces that have always painted on canvases or paper though it proved to be a bit more challenging.

In the end though they pushed through their initial difficulties and I think you will all agree that these one-of-a-kind wearable art jean jackets all turned out incredible.

We thrifted all of the jean jackets and picked up the sewing trims at Fabricland and iron on letters at Michaels.

My sister bought a jacket that was already quite embellished however that didn’t stop her adding more and really making it her own.

You can’t see it well but she hand stitched on crystal beads on the pockets.

Reese decided to paint a girl and an owl on the back of her jacket along with handmade fabric leaves, flowers and iron on butterflies.

Rylee painted a lion on the back of her jean jacket.

Sadly the camera didn’t pick up all the sequin and crystal beads she sewed on by hand in his mane.

You really need to see these pieces in real life to appreciate all of the details and hard work that went into them.

I wasn’t able to create my own as I was too busy helping everyone else however after doing this little “workshop” I’m geared up to try something soon. I’ve started painting on a blazer that I can’t wait to get back to.

I did a couple other DIYs previously on jeans you may want to check out too… embroidered jeans,  patchwork jeans, and paint splatter jeans.

Do you ever alter your clothing? Do you like the idea of creating wearable art?

This Park and Cube shows a DIY how to paint leaves on white shorts here which is really quite cute. I don’t agree that fabric paints are necessary. I’ve always used acrylic paints on my jeans and it works just fine, just thin them with a bit of water. It may be a bit stiff at first, but that stiffness goes away after a few washings.

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