CONFETTI LEGGINGS tutorial

I am always admiring the hand-printed leggings on etsy and floating around Pinterest kid's style boards. While I am definitely not able to drop $30 and $40 on a pair of leggings for my stylish little gal (although I wish I was!), I do have a steady hand and my craft store has plenty of fabric paint. After repurposing a few of my old solid-colored pairs of leggings into new pint-sized leggings for the gal, I knew there had to be something to do to jazz them up a bit. Three different patterns popped into my head and after going through my acrylic paint stash, picking up some fabric paint and textile medium, and staying up way later than I should, I now have 3 uber stylish pairs of toddler leggings.

For my first pair of leggings, I was envisioning a confetti effect, so I started with my berry colored leggings and chose party colors like aqua, neon pink, yellow, and tangerine. I think metallics would also look awesome for this confetti pattern. If you don't have any solid-colored leggings for your kiddo sitting around already and aren't up to sewing any, they are cheap enough to buy at Target or Walmart.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
-Solid colored leggings
-Fabric paint or textile medium and acrylic paints
-A pencil with an unused eraser
-Small dishes for your paint (bottle caps or baby food jar lids work great!)
-Paper towel or cloth
-Cardboard
-Your favorite movie, show, or audiobook to enjoy

1.) Cut your cardboard in the shape of the leggings and stick it inside to keep the front and back from sticking together as you paint.

2.) If you are using a textile medium and acrylic paints, follow the directions on the back of your textile medium and mix the two in your dishes. If you are using fabric paint, squirt a little in your dishes. You only need about a teaspoon.

3.) Get your pencil and dip the very end of the eraser into your first color of paint. If you are nervous about stamping. You can practice a couple times on a piece of paper to make sure you are applying enough even pressure.

4.) Stamp one dot, then dip again, and repeat. To achieve the confetti look, I picked 2 areas to make the dots more concentrated and then stamped less dots in other areas. I stamped each color 3 or 4 times in the concentrated areas and then 3 or 4 dots spaced out over the rest of the area.

5.) Once you are done with the first color, wipe off your eraser with the paper towel and repeat with your next color. Repeat the process again until you are done with each color. If the colors aren't as saturated as you would like, you can restamp them once the dots dry a little until they are the saturation you desire.

6.) Swat the fly swarming around your face. That's just me? Oh ok. Continue on then.

7.) At this point you will only be done with one side. If you aren't in a rush to finish, you can simply let that side dry for a day and stamp the other side the next day. If you are impatient to finish (like me) you can lightly blow-dry the dots until they feel like they won't smudge when you turn over the leggings. Make sure you have paper towels or something covering your table when you flip the leggings over in case any paint comes off.

8.) Once you are done painting, let the leggings dry for 24 hours before setting with heat. Your fabric paint or textile medium should have instructions on how to set the paint with heat. Also note the washing instructions on your paint, so you don't wash them too soon if they need a few days to set.

9.) Now put the leggings on your tot and admire your handiwork!