For this project, I decided to upcycle a pair of purple pants that I had thrifted into the Vaporwave aesthetic. I first started by sketching out some ideas and then went to Goodwill to see if I could find anything that matched. I knew I wanted to insert different colored panels into the sides and was especially lucky to find an ombre pair of leggings at Goodwill. I then got to work seam ripping the sides of the purple pants and the waistband. I also cut out rectangle panels from the ombre leggings for the side stripe and the orange part of the waistband. I then sewed the legging pieces together at the cuts of the original pants to add in the side stripes, being careful to duplicate the construction of the original waistband to make sure I wasn’t sewing too many layers of fabric together at once.
After the pants were reconstructed, I hand embroidered the classic sun motif onto the front of one pant leg with its own ombre from yellow to hot pink. I then used pink fabric paint I found at a reuse store to make a grid which is another classic Vaporwave motif.
