Apr 5

Apr 5 DIY Paint Splatter Dress

Since I can’t sew (I’m planning to learn someday!) my method of customizing clothes over the years has been by taking [usually thrifted] pieces and doing something fun with them.

The first project I remember is this Bleached Shorts on the old JE blog. Super simple as I literally used a pair of thrifted shorts and bleach, then later added some extra pizazz to the back pockets.

My next successful project was after a DIY-gone-wrong, using appliqués, trim, and patches to bring out my inner festival hippie with this Denim Overall Dress.

This project was done in 2020 while living in an apartment complex, without access to a sewing machine (I cannot hand sew to save my life). I hadn’t done any clothes DIYs for quite a long time.

I really like the way this Torrid dress (with pockets!) fits me, but after having it nearly a year, I found myself not reaching for it very often because while I like the way it feels,

it’s kind of boring.

I thought of maybe doing a geometric pattern using tape to add some interest, but with the gathers, pockets, and drawstring waist, I wasn’t sure how successful that would be. I still had paint in the back of my mind so I did a quick Pinterest dive for “paint splattered dress” annnd came up pretty much empty.

I did find a how-to for paint splattered jeans by Who What Wear and that provided some of the steps for today’s project. I also called our sister Tiffany of Elijah’s Kisses and she helped me talk through some of the paint questions I had.

I grabbed a cheap store hanger, hung a plastic garbage bag on it then taped two brown paper sacks together, taped those to the garbage bag, and taped a Torrid shopping bag to those to keep the dress layers from sticking together and to hold the skirt folds open.

I hung the dress over that and hung the hanger from a tree. I squirted some white gesso onto my gloved-fingers and squished and released. When both sides of the dress were evenly splattered, I moved the hanger to underneath my building’s stairs — I found a part of the frame where I can hang the dress and no matter which way the wind blows, it doesn’t brush against anything!

I left the white layer to dry for an hour and moved on to the yellow splatters.

Dried the yellow for another hour and added…

Orange. Splattered, dried sixty minutes, repeat with…

PINK.

My original plan was that pink would be my final color. But after looking at the colors together, it felt unfinished? I consulted my paint expert once more (Tiffany, via text) and we agreed that…