How to Paint a Denim Jacket: A Super-Cute Way to Upcycle Your Wardrobe

Tools and materials:

• Old denim jacket
• Assorted beads and crystals
• Fabric pen
• Acrylic paint in assorted colors
• Clothes iron
• Ironing paper
• Craft glue
• Tweezers

1. Position and sketch your painting

Mark the top and bottom points of your painting where you want it on the old denim jacket.

Trace out your pattern either freehand or using some object of your choice, like the fern leaves used in this tutorial.

2. Paint your design on the denim jacket

Use acrylic fabric paint to begin filling in your traced pattern. To create my fern design, I painted a darker pink first, then added a second layer of lighter pink, which gives dimension to the design.

3. Set the pain with an iron

Let the paint dry completely overnight, then use ironing paper and a regular clothes iron to iron over all of the painted areas on your denim jacket. That will help to seal the colors in.

Tip: if you don’t have ironing paper, you can use regular baking parchment paper instead. Maybe while you’re at it, pop some cookies in the oven!

4. Now for the embellishment

Select your beads and crystals, and place them on the jacket to see where you'd like them to go.

Use a strong craft glue, like the E6000 used in this video, and small tweezers to carefully place the beads and crystals on your denim jacket. You can glue beads and crystals right on top of the painted areas if you wish.

Let the glue dry completely before wearing your new painted denim jacket.

How to paint a denim jacket tutorial

Please leave a comment to let us know what you painted on your custom-painted denim jacket! The possibilities are endless and there’s no reason you have to stop at making just one custom denim jacket. Think of all the possible designs!