Painting On Denim Jackets

I have always wanted a denim jacket but I've never found one that didn't make me look like a dark blue bubble....until a couple of weeks ago when I found a soft, weathered denim jacket in Old Navy.  It's short so it actually fits me properly, with no undesirable bubble effect!  I can't tell you how happy that made me.

And then I wondered, what about some paint, embroidery, maybe some trim?  My daughter has a lovely denim jacket too and a project was born.  We both decided to start by embellishing the back panel.  I am planning to try some embroidery over the paint.  It's Spring Break here this week so we've taken over the family room table and been working on our jackets together.

We are using regular acrylic craft paint with a fabric medium by the same manufacturer.  It can be a little tricky painting on the denim which has a pronounced texture and we found we needed at least two base coats to cover the dark blue.  The fabric medium says that the paint can be washed but not tumble dried but I have always found in the past that any acrylic paint that gets onto clothing is there to stay no matter how you treat it!

My grand plan is to add some embroidery to the painted flowers and some cream crochet trim to the cuffs and possibly elsewhere.  I may also experiment with some Liberty style fabric torn into strips and used at the cuffs as well.  I'm not sure yet.  

I'm not done with this panel of painted flowers, this is as far I've gotten today.  I want to fill that whole area and just go over the edges a bit like the leaf on the bottom.  I'm thinking I may trail a little vine with some tiny leaves and flowers up and onto the shoulder area.  I'll keep you posted!