UO DIY: Customise with Cam Portland
Cam Portland @camportland.store, South London based artist is here with customisation ideas to upcylce your BDG denim jacket and Dr. Marten boots. Follow Cam's step-by-step guides to give your items a fresh update.
BDG Denim Jacket
Get creative and customise your denim jacket. All you need is a piece of card, scalpel/scissors, spray paint, white fabric pens in different sizes and an iron. Let's go!
- Firstly, I create a quick sketch of my chosen character on a piece of card. This helps work out the size of the design which will be on the back of the jacket. Once I’m satisfied with the size I use either a scalpel or scissors to cut out my final image.
- I then use spray paint to create the negative space from the cut out. This creates a black silhouette of the design. To make the silhouette stand out and to clean up any marks I draw an outline using a white fabric pen. For a sharp white outline I go over the outline about 4-5 times.
- Once the final outline layer is dried, I then use a fine tipped fabric pen to create the facial details of the design. I use the same technique of going over the lines multiple times to sharpen the white pigment.
- Once dried, I recommend ironing the design from the inside of the jacket, this works similar to a heat press and sealing and bonding the paint into the fabric of the denim jacket. This activates the permanent fabric marker and paint and makes the design water resistant.
Dr. Martens
Discover how to upcycle your Dr. Martens. Before you start make sure you have acetone, fabric pens, an air brush machine and a satin finisher to hand!
- Most leather boots and shoes have a factory finish on the leather. People often make the mistake of drawing directly onto the shoe when customising their boots. This often leads to the customisation bleeding or smudging when worn. Due to this, it’s very important that before customising your boots you must use a small amount of acetone to take off the factory finish off the leather.
- Once the factory finish has been taken off and the boots have dried for about 5-10 minutes, your boots are ready to start customising. Above I have started drawing one of my caricatures across the heel and quarter of the right boot.
- After you’ve finished customising your boots, it’s time to reapply the factory finish. I bought an air brush machine and a bottle of satin finisher. Applying a finisher to your customised boot means that your boot will be weatherproof, smudge proof and ready to wear.
- Above is the final design! Glazed with a satin finish and ready for any weather or outing.