6 Ways to Customise Clothing for Pride

Follow along with instructions by Flint Bedser and discover how to paint onto a denim jacket. Use the free template above or get creative and draw your own design!

1. Print out the two A4 sheets of the template on carbon paper and tape them together. Cut out various aspects and arrange them on your jacket to fit - tape these in place too.

2. Lay the carbon paper on the jacket, ink side down. Trace the illustration with a pen to transfer the design. Red carbon paper works best on light fabrics and white on dark fabrics.

3. Mix your acrylic paint with equal parts of the fabric medium. Now it's time to paint the design, start with the heads, then clothes and finish with a wide array of flags.

4. Once the paint is dry, use the illustration as a reference to draw details with a black paint pen.

Use the Cricut Design Space link below to decorate your denim jacket with this iron-on vinyl motif created by Irene De Sa.

https://design-beta.cricut.com/#/landing/project-detail/6437f778c4121402844cab58

1. Open the link from the previous step in Cricut Design Space. You may need to customise the width of the design - it's set to 35.5cm wide. You may need to reduce the size to fit onto a 30 x 30cm mat if you don't have another that's big enough.

2. Once you're happy with the design, combine and weld the text layer with the black heart layer (this will make it easier to place the other hearts). Click 'make it', making sure to mirror the text as we're using iron-on vinyl (it won't matter for the hearts as they are the same both ways).

3. After cutting all the elements, weed the designs.

4. Using a heat press, pre-heat the fabric for 5 seconds on a medium heat (for other materials use the Cricut Heat Guide for instruction on times and temperatures). Start with the black text and heart, position onto the fabric and adhere using the heat press. Allow for the sheet to fully cool before removing. Repeat this process for all of the coloured hearts (working from the black heart outwards), making sure to cover the attached iron-on with leftover carrier sheet before using the heat press around that area. You don't want to apply the heat press directly to uncovered vinyl.

1. Cut an 8 x 8" piece of calico and draw out your design using a heat erasable pen.

2. Place into an embroidery hoop and use a fill stitch with your selected embroidery thread to fill in your design.

3. Add a satin stitch around the edge to create a border.

4. Use Mod Podge to coat the back of the design and leave to fully dry. Use an iron to apply the iron-on adhesive to the back of the embroidery patch. Cut around the patch as close to the edge as possible. You can now iron the embroidery patches onto the denim jacket.

Adding a touch of crochet is a great way to jazz up a pocket! So why not create a pride flag using the pattern in this post?

Abbreviations (UK terms)

Ch – chain

Htr – half treble Rep – repeat

Using Black, ch 19.

Row 1: 1htr in 3rd ch from hook, 1htr in each ch, turn.

Row 2: 2ch, 1htr in each st, turn. (17sts)

Rows 3-4: Rep row 4.

Change to Purple

Rows 5-8: Rep row 2.

Change to White

Rows 9- 12: Rep row 2.

Change to Golden Yellow

Rows 13-16: Rep row 2.

Sew in all ends. Lightly steam if required.

Stitch the flag onto your piece of clothing. We've poked the button's pocket through the stitches and tacked it in place.

1. Using your printed template, cut around each letter. Once you are happy with the placement of your templates, draw an outline around each onto your jacket sleeve with a heat erasable pen or a pencil.

2. Before you start decorating your clothing, dip the stylus into the Diamond Dotz wax to make it sticky. Then, fill in your first letter with fabric glue and a paint brush and wait for it to become tacky.

3. Once your glue is tacky, begin creating the outline with your silver gems using your stylus to pick up and place onto the jacket. Now, cover the inner parts of the letters with different colours, filling in all the gaps.

4. These gems are perfect for customising different parts of your jacket, here we have added them to the back illustration using the same technique in the previous steps.