DIY American Pants

I saw this DIY project pinned on Pinterest (follow me on Pinterest here. My username is just ericatanner) and I just knew I had to make them. So a couple days ago I made em.

I obviously didn't make shorts like she did, instead I went for the pant route.

The woman's tutorial that I pinned, was super good and had some helpful hints. So I guess I am more of a testimonial saying that the tutorial I pinned is good! BUT I thought I would throw in some of my own helpful tips on what worked for me and what didn't.

I followed all of her same tips except:
1. I did not use a star stencil bought from the store, instead I used a Cricut to cut out our star shape.
2. I didn't use "Old Shorts", I went to Savers and bought some $3 old Eddie Bauer "Mom Jeans" but they kind of look like high waisted boyfriend jeans.
3. We used the same brand Simply Spray fabric paint, except our craft store was out of blue Simply Spray brand fabric paint so instead we used the Tulip brand blue spray paint. It didn't spray on as evenly but I actually ended up liking it a lot. Just spray far away because it sprays on in bigger drops.
4. I did not use a normal paint brush to do the stars. I used a foam craft brush which worked good. Less paint is better (this stays true for the whole project)!
5. For the stars I used normal house (wall) white paint that we had laying around. But I am sure even acrylic or any kind of white paint would work. I just would not spray the paint on.

I made these mistakes: 
1. Really really really really make sure that you cut out some cardboard or something to go in between the pants/shorts so that it does not go through. Cardboard that fits completely across the whole width of your pant legs.

Cardboard between legs when spray painting so it does not leak.
Then also for the stars so you have something hard to press against.

See this is my mistake. Cardboard didn't go all the way across.

2. I bought the Simply Spray brand for white but it said "Textured White", which may be the only white that the Simply Spray brand has. It seriously came out textured and dried kind of bumpy. I would not use this again. I instead would buy the Tulip brand white paint or maybe your craft store has just a plain white (not textured) Simply Spray.

Me wearing them this morning.
Yes, I cut my head off on purpose.
You don't wanna see my morning hairdo.

One thing I really learned was that not every stripe or star is going to be perfect. Just go with it and it will end up cute! Mine is definitely not perfect. The mess ups are ok! I can't wait to wear these all day today.

Happy 4th of July!