Patriotic Painted Denim Bunting

by All Things G&D

The end of May marks the unofficial start of summer with Memorial Day, and I’m getting in the patriotic spirit with this DIY painted denim bunting!

patriotic painted denim bunting, crafts, painting, patriotic decor ideas, seasonal holiday decor

DIY patriotic painted denim bunting made out of an old pair of blue jeans!

I made a template out of card stock, traced it onto an old pair of jeans, and cut out. Next, I secured a stencil to the denim with double-stick tape. Using white acrylic craft paint and a flat-bottomed foam stencil brush I blotted the paint onto the denim in straight up and down motions.

I used two coats of paint for my bunting, and the paint soaks in pretty quickly so I didn’t have too wait long before coats. I also noticed the paint continues to soak into the denim as it dries, giving it a little bit of a worn and weathered look which I really liked. The picture below shows how the dried letters look on denim after one coat (lighter and more faded) and after two coats (more pronounced, slightly faded).

To hang, I folded over the denim at the very top and cut a small vertical slit on each side with scissors. Then I strung the letters on red rickrack. (I used rickrack because it does a great job of holding the letters in place without them sliding around, but you could also easily use ribbon, twine, or string knotted at the corners as well.)

Lastly, I added little tassels made out of strips of cut denim, ribbon, and baker’s twine.

I made each piece of my bunting 5″ wide and 6″ high – the perfect size for 3″ letter stencils. You can recreate your own, or click on the link below to go to my blog for a free printable of the template I used.