Miss Butterfly

Lately I've been quite pro-active (except for house cleaning that is . . ups!) and after discovering a well stocked textile paint store near my house, I knew exactly what my next DIY would be. For I had a pair of lovely nude lycra tights from Pas Boutique which begged for some customization.

Let's take it from the top . .

And now let's take them in turns . .

• The tights, as I've said, I got from Pas Boutique as they are really well done and I do love their variety of colors. I've chosen lycra over cotton because of the way the fiber interacts with the paint. On cotton the paint has a tendency to spread out, so for the very fine details, the satin-y texture of lycra would be best suited.
• For the textile paint I went with Decor fin transparent black color from Talens. But if you have the time and patience you could try different colors for different sections for which there are so many possibilities. After you apply the paint be careful to let it dry properly. And, after it dries, iron the tights (with a piece of fabric between the tights and iron) to make the paint settle.
• I worked with a flat brush, as you don't need to put to much paint on the pattern, but only carefully wipe it over to cover the empty spaces.
• Speaking of, it's time to talk about the creative part of our DIY, what is the empty space that you are going to fill? I decided on some butterfly prints, (what can I say? I was in a romantic mood :) which I got from these beautiful antique insect prints, that are also on sale. Specifically, I worked with a couple from 1837, Jardine's Naturalist Library Butterfly,  this & this. But if butterflies are not your thing, again, the possibilities are endless! Don't forget to use thicker printing paper and to print on black & white.
• To make the cutouts it's best that you use a cuter (be careful with it though!). And if you do go for the butterfly prints, cut out the white bits, leaving the black ones interconnected, as you can see bellow.

•  Last, but certainly not least, you will need some cardboard which you will cut into the shape of the tights. This will be inserted in the leg of your tights during the painting proccess so as not to let the paint transfer to the other side.

Hope you have fun, don't forget to send me pictures, and I'm here for any questions!

look who actually dropped by during our photoshoot! :)

Pas Boutique nude Tights, Topshop Trench,

Gucci patent Pumps (which I borrowed from my mom and don't plan on returning ;)