Photos by: Max Zoghbi

This is incredibly simple, cheap, AND awesomely patriotic. So here we go!

What you’ll need:

1.  Jean shorts you wish you wore more often (or you can buy some jeans from Goodwill for $4 and cut them!)
2. Three bottles of acrylic craft paint (I used Americana from Hobby Lobby, $.99 each. I went with more of a dark red and navy instead of primaries but that’s up to you!)
3. Paintbrush (I used an inch wide regular art paintbrush I had lying around)
4. Star stencil (I used a piece of cardstock, drew a star (chinese star will work!), and then cut it out with an exacto knife on a wooden cutting board, or you can just buy one from hobby lobby)
5. (Optional) Foam letter stamps from hobby lobby ($2.99). Any stamp or stencil will work!

Procedure:

1. I started with the stripes on the right side. I chose not to use tape because I was aiming for a semi messy look. So paint vertical lines of red, avoiding the pockets. Then paint the white stripes in between. While messy is cute, you still want to keep the width of the stripes pretty consistent.
2. Next, I took the star stencil & placed it close to the bottom of the shorts. I then painted white inside the star starting at the center and working into the points and quickly found out this didn’t work. The paint leaked under the stencil a little bit and I had to end up going back and reshaping the blob into a star. I suggest starting at the points of the star painting inward to the center to avoid the paint getting trapped under the stencil. A light layer is best. You can always go back and add more white. I actually ended up liking the stars with less paint best.
3. Continue painting the stars, moving the stencil along to the right. It’s ok if your stencil is on top of the previous star. It’s ok if the stars aren’t exactly lined up. Once you have a row, start working your way up the shorts placing the stencil directly between the tops of two stars of the previous row.
4. Once you are out of room to put stars, go back and add just tips of the stars to the edges. This really makes a huge difference! Imagine the stars continuing in line and place the stencil accordingly.
5. Now carefully paint the blue around the stars.
6. If you have a tiny pocket, go ahead and paint that opposite of the design on the current side.
7. Let the front dry. I used a blow dryer to speed up the process.
8. For the back, follow the same procedure. Blow dry. Then stamp “USA” on the striped side (Optional)

UPDATE: Here is the photo of the shorts after I ran them through the wash on Cold/Delicate and laid flat to dry.

A big thank you to Heather Chauvin of Tealou & Sweetpea for guest blogging on Haute Off The Rack and sharing how to make these fun and patriotic shorts.  If you love Heather’s fun and innovative ideas, make sure to visit her at Tealou & Sweetpea.

Have a wonderful weekend!