Summer crafts
Funk up a dull drab pair of jeans with a little bit of flower power. Great for kids jeans or hippie ladies jeans or a project for a teenager, you're bound to be a trend-setter in funky daisy jeans. Quick and easy to do and not a great deal of artistic flare is needed.
To make daisy jeans you will need...
A pair of jeans (cheap jeans are ideal), thick bleach, artists paintbrushes, thick card, scraps of bright fabric (look in the patchwork box in your local haberdashery) and a needle and thread.
Lay the jeans out flat on a table. Move anything from the area that would be spoilt should it come into contact with the bleach.
Push some thick card up the inside of the right leg of the jeans. This creates a firm base and prevents bleach from seeping through to the fabric below.
Along the bottom hem and up the side seem of the leg to the knee draw 4 to 8 daisies with a biro. The flowers can be assorted sizes. Start off with an "O" shape at the centre and draw six petals or so coming off from the daisy middle. Just draw the flower heads - no stalks or leaves.
Once you are happy with the design go over the daisies with bleach. Pour some bleach onto a plate (thick bleach is best) and using a paint brush, brush the bleach over the biro lines.
You need to work quickly because not only will some brush bristles melt, but the bleach will also be bleaching and attacking the fabric of the jeans. Really you want all the daisies bleached to a similar colour.
Reapply bleach to areas you feel needs it.
When all the daisies have turned white, immerse the jeans into a bowl of water and rinse three or four times to get all of the bleach out. Do not put them into the washing machine because the bleach will perish the rubber seal of the washing machine. Leave the jeans to dry.
You can leave the jeans like this, or you can give each daisy a coloured centre.
Here's how to colour centres...
Draw around a mug or something onto the back of some brightly coloured fabric. Cut out and with a needle and threads sew a row of running stitches around the outside of the fabric circle. Draw the running stitches up so that the raw edges are drawn in. Flatten the circle out, this is your daisy centre. Adjust the tightness of the "Drawing up" to make the centre bigger or smaller to fit each particular daisy. Sew or Wonderwed the daisy centre into place on the jeans. Use invisible stitching, hemming stitch would be good.
Feeling adventurous?
Try covering the jeans in daisies, the front and back. Or just across the seat of the jeans. The funky design possibilities are endless.
