This skirt was inspired by many polka-dotted items I’ve seen lately, but especially this skirt from Madewell:

I really liked the white and navy color combo and the scale of the dots, so I decided to replicate it with a denim thrift-store pencil skirt. Here’s a tutorial for making your own version, but of course you’re not limited to a skirt. You could do this on any item of clothing–I’ve seen some really cute polka-dot jeans lately that would be easy to replicate (like these, these, these, or these).

Materials:
Skirt to polka-dot
White acrylic paint
Textile medium (I used Ceramcoat Clear Textile Medium)
Paint brush
Disposable container for mixing paint
Masking tape
Pen
Item to use for your stamp
Ruler
Scrap fabric

Methods:
1. Mix up your paint and textile medium following the instructions on your product. Mine said to use 2 parts paint to 1 part textile medium. Using a disposable container with a lid is a good idea so you can easily save your paint for touch-ups.

2. For my stamp I used the end of a tube of lip gloss, but you could use anything that gives you the size of dot you want. Practice dipping your stamp and making dots on scrap fabric to get an idea of how much paint and pressure to use. (For a smaller dot, the eraser on the end of a pencil makes a great stamp!)

3. To keep your dots even, place stripes of masking tape on your skirt, and measure and mark the distance apart that you want your dots to be. I placed my dots every 2 inches, and staggered the rows.

4. Start stamping your skirt next to the marks you made on the masking tape. Don’t worry if your dots aren’t filled in completely. If you’re using a thinner fabric, you’ll want to put something like a piece of cardboard or a magazine between the front and back of the garment, so the paint doesn’t bleed through.


5. After you’ve stamped all of the dots, touch them up with your brush. You might have to do a couple of coats of touch-up, especially if you’re doing white on a dark color and you want completely opaque dots.

6. Let the front dry, then flip it over and do the same steps on the back. If you’re careful when you remove your masking tape, you can reuse the tape on the back. Try to line up the rows of dots on the front and back. Let your paint dry completely (duh!)