Our Oliver is quite the character. He is so particular about what he wears that recently, asking him to get dressed in the morning has gotten kind of ugly. It ends with clothing strewn about his room, and one very unhappy 3-year-old rolling around on the floor, crying “These pants aren’t COOOOOOL!”
Recently, in an attempt to understand exactly what “cool” is to Oliver, I discovered that plain anything (pants, shirts, socks, underwear) is uncool. Lightening strike pants, loud zippy colors, crazy patterns, bright orange dinosaur leggings, skeleton pajamas, or space-themed anything is cool. Which is a problem. Because nearly all of the hand-me-downs from Milo are simple, plain basics that I bought because of their plain-ness.
The solution? Fabric paint and a bit of creativity. A while back, I spotted these cool pants but absolutely could not justify their price tag (holy cow, they were expensive!), I decided to make them. Here’s how:
Materials Needed:
- White fabric spray paint (I used Tulip brand, found at Michael’s)- be careful NOT to get puffy fabric paint!
- Black sweatpants (these are Apaman from a couple of years back)
- Scissors
- Cardstock large enough to cut a pattern into, or you could even use a piece of fabric as long as you are careful to cut straight lines
First, carefully cut the shape you want into the card stock. Make sure your pants are flat on the area you are going to spray, then place the pattern on top of the area you want to paint.
Hold the pattern in place while you spray the paint on, then carefully remove the pattern. Wipe excess paint off with a paper towel (be sure to wipe underneath too!), and repeat on the other side. Allow to dry for 4 hours, and avoid washing for 72 hours. For best results, wash pants inside-out. And voila! Cool pants!
Now, let’s hope the third little guy is not quite so picky once these make it down the line to him!
Wow, still cool enough for O and acceptable to you. I hope all social growing pains are as easy to solve.
The idea of a cute little boy rolling on the floor shouting, “These pants are coooool!” made me smile. (It’s probably not that cute when you live with it, however. So good luck.)
Love this idea, Lauren!!! It would make for a cute personalized baby/kid gift also. Thanks for the inspiration.
Lauren you should give freezer paper stencling a try. Take wax paper, cut out the stencil you want, iron the wax paper onto the fabric (shiny side down), paint your stencil, and then peel off the wax paper. DONE!
first time commenter here: oliver is a leo isn’t he? he’s surely exhibiting some pretty typical leo’s traits here 🙂 your kids are the cutest.
Thanks, Kristin! Great tip!
And Giov, yes, Oliver is a Leo and also the Chinese year of the Bull… I hear these are not the easiest people to deal with. However, I love him to pieces even though he is a bull-headed, fashion-conscious, insane-making child!
Those are some cool pants! I’m waiting for when W starts voicing more opinions on his wardrobe, he already seeks out his two shirts with characters on them almost daily… I really, really like the basics so hopefully he decides to go with it and doesn’t end up rolling on the floor 😉
He’s lucky to have an acquarius mama who’s open minded enough to accommodate his, ahem, dictator’s moves. opposite signs work well together! (that’s it from today’s astrology corner :))