Monday, May 13, 2013

DIY: ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

It was my friend Bohmyi's birthday last Friday and she wanted this ASOS sweatshirt.  Since it was online and $50 (plus shipping), I was a bit lazy to run to my parents (I'm a teenager, don't judge) and ask them to get it for her, so I decided to DIY it because my motto - which a friend came up with (props to you) - is "Why buy something when you can  DIY-it?"

Since the sweatshirt is out of stock at the moment (or forever...), I decided to write a post about how to recreate this beautiful sweatshirt.  Please keep in mind that this isn't a quick and easy way to recreate it - it took me hours and hours.  Enjoy!


WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

  • Water to thin out the paint
  • A plain white/beige sweater - I got my beige one from Old Navy, though a white one would be more comfortable to wear and would make your life ridiculously easier.
  • Some cardboard big enough to stretch out your sweater to make it easier to paint on.  The other sizes are so that you can stretch out the sleeves as you work on them.
  • 1 inch and 2 inch foam brushes - I got mine from Michael's and they were ridiculously expensive, so go check out your local dollar store for a cheaper and more reasonable alternative.
  • Fabric paint - I got mine from Michael's in the colours (from left to right) Wedding Cake (creamy white), Pool (aqua blue), Greek Tile (indigo-like blue), Purple Yam, and Black Beetle.  If you do end up heading to Michael's to get your fabric paint, be sure to print out their weekly coupon, or pull it up on your smartphone. (Link is for Canadians, switch to the US site to get their version)
  • A (fabric) paintbrush
  • A paper plate or palette of some sort to hold the paint and water in (not in the photo)
  • A large garbage bag to protect your work surface (not in the photo)
  • A toothbrush


DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt


The first thing you're going to want to do is inspect your sweater for any little things that shouldn't be there, such as tags, embellishments (that can be removed, if they can't, you - unfortunately - didn't get the right sweater) and get rid of them.   Then, iron your sweater to prepare a smooth canvas for the paint to go on.

DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

This step is simply to stretch the sweater out to prevent the paint from bleeding through to the other side (not fun, trust me).

DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

Next, it's time to start painting!  Just painting it with the original texture of the paint would make the sweater extremely rough and uncomfortable to wear, so what we have to do is thin out the paint.  This is honestly just an eyeballing process trying to figure out how much water to put in.  I'd say add about a portion of paint and half of that portion of water.  If you think it's too thick, add some water.  If it's too watery, add some paint.

**If you already have a white sweater, you can skip the next few steps.**

DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

Mix it all up!

DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

Draw an outline from the left armpit area until about the halfway point from the right armpit down to the bottom of the sweater.  I really hope that made sense, but if it didn't, take a look at the photo as reference.

DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

Paint that part white as well as the right sleeve.  If you're worried about the sweater feeling rough against your skin, don't paint the sleeve.

DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

Mix together a bunch of blues and thin it out!  Don't worry about mixing it too well because the blue gradient (that you're going to paint in the next step) will look really cool if it's not all the same colour.

DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

Using a foam brush, paint of the blue gradient in a C shape.  Once you have a "base" colour down, you can go in with one of the blue colours to add a bit of dimension.

DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

Now, you'll have to mix some paint for the main black "interior."

DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

Paint it on using a foam brush!

DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

To add the white splatters that the original sweater has, mix some white paint with some water and dip your toothbrush in it.  If you already know how to do this, you can ignore what I'm going to say right after this sentence, but if you don't, pay attention.  You know how you rinse your toothbrush after using it?  Use that same motion but with the toothbrush pointing downwards to the sweater.  You should get pretty white speckles on your sweater if you're doing it right.  Splatter it all along the blue C and pretty much everywhere.

DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

Now it's time to start on the Mickey!  Draw an outline using the photo of the ASOS sweatshirt as reference.

DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

It turns out that I didn't take photos of  the rest of the Mickey-drawing process, but basically, use some white and black to finish up Mickey's cape thing.  Then, draw his head and hat in white.  Add the details on his face with white and black and the details on his hat in different shades of blue.

Once you're done with the front side (it should look like the photo below), repeat the exact same thing on the back.

DIY ASOS Fantasia Sweatshirt

Let your sweater air-dry overnight at the very least and iron over the sweatshirt at low-medium heat.  Be sure to only hand wash and air-dry the sweatshirt.  Never, ever stick it in the washing machine or the dryer unless you want your hours of work to go down the drain.  It happened to me and I wanted to cry.  So be careful with your wonderful new sweatshirt!

I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and let me know in the comments if you're going to try this out.


Thanks for reading!
- J

Image from shopsimple.com

16 comments:

  1. Wow! Fantastic job! Great tutorial, too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, Megan! I'm glad you liked it. :)

      - Juliana

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  2. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW! Best DIY I've seen. Seriously. This is really wonderful. I've added this to my bookmarks because this is soo good!

    xoxo's,
    Oumayma
    TFD | The Fashion District
    Latest outfit 

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, you have no idea. This comment made my day, thank you so, so, so much, Oumayma!

      - Juliana

      Delete
  3. Oh hell yes, I am definitely going to try this out! What a fun idea for a gift!! Super!
    risingcolors.blogspot.in

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, Ritika! I'm so glad that you're going to try this out. :) Good luck!

      - Juliana

      Delete
  4. Oh my god that looks amazing!! Who needs shopping when you can just make it, yours looks so alike!! xxx
    http://lesimplyclassy.blogspot.com.au/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much! I'm so happy that you feel that way about the sweatshirt. :)

      - Juliana

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  5. omg so jealous of your artistic abilities, this came out ah-mazing hun! Love it! <3

    http://dressingwithdesire.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aww... that's so sweet of you to say, thank you so much!

      - Juliana

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  6. wow you are such a talented artist ! This would not be easy for me. Great post xx
    love dani xx
    www.huntinginheels.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for saying that, Dani! I'm flattered that you think that. It's actually not as hard as it looks, trust me.

      - Juliana

      Delete
  7. This is GORGEOUS. If I did this I have a feeling it wouldn't have QUITE the same effect. LOL. Great job.

    xoxo
    www.PardonMyFashion.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha, thank you for saying that - it's really sweet of you. And it's actually not as hard as it looks. If you've ever tried DIY-ing anything galaxy, it's pretty much just like that.

      - Juliana

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  8. Thats so awesome! following you, can't wait to see more posts like this! x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, Louisa! Your comment just made my day, thank you. :)

      - Juliana

      Delete