DIY bleach shirt
By Lakota

August 4th, 2017

Ever since I was a young kid I loved to make things. I loved making everything from crafts, valentines for the other kids at school even clothes. When I was in middle school I’d say I crafted the most with my clothes as we didn’t have much money to really have unique things. So I made my own unique style instead!

DIY BLEACH2

Now that I am older I still love to make things because one, it’s cheaper than ordering custom and two, I have virtually no limits to what I can make! I’ve always made my kids birthday shirts, onesies and party decorations as well. I dabble in sewing in the very minimum amount, that is, enough to make clothing items smaller or bigger and that’s about it. I now alter clothing as an adult because I can’t find what I want at any stores, style or print wise and because things don’t always fit my body type well unless I’ve altered it.

DIY BLEACH2

So on this venture I decided to make a DIY Bleach shirt. I was given the idea when at my local dollar general I noticed there was some really soft XL shirts on clearance. I went ahead and purchased for around $3 for two shirts. I knew that I could make the shirts slim fit no problem but they were just plain black shirts. While having some fabric markers and fabric paints I knew neither would show up on black so I decided to try a bleach shirt!

I started with the shirt as it was, much too big and baggy for me.

DIY Bleach Shirt

Next I turned the two shirts inside out and laid the shirt I had already altered on top to outline the shape that I wanted the new shirt to be.

DIY Bleach Shirt

I took and pinned along the edges, having left an additional 1/4″ seam allowance along the edge. I used my sewing machine and a zig zag stitch to follow the pins, with the new shirt turning out like this.

DIY Bleach Shirt

After this step I was ready to find my stencil, now I did find fault in the way I did this initially, so I will explain what I did and then what I did the next time to fix the issue. I work on a Mac computer which limits me a bit on programs used at times, I googled around and found that if I installed Adobe Acrobat Reader, I would be able to stretch images onto multiple pieces of paper when printing. So that’s what I did. Then I used an x-acto blade and cut out the stencil and kept the small bits of the letters like “a” and “o”.

DIY Bleach Shirt

Slipping cardboard in between the front and back of the shirt is a very crucial step in the process otherwise the bleach will bleed through to the back.

DIY Bleach Shirt

Next I went ahead and laid out the paper stencil onto the fabric and mixed up my bleach solution of 50/50 water and bleach.

DIY Bleach Shirt

I went with just two or three sprays at first and didn’t see much change, so I sprayed a few more times. Turns out patience is key with bleach shirts. I also took a paint brush and dipped it directly in bleach to outline small parts like the ears.

DIY Bleach Shirt

Once I removed the stencil I noticed that I had indeed saturated the shirt a bit too much and some of the lines were bleeding together.

DIY Bleach Shirt

I decided to go on with the process anyways and see what I could do later on to remedy the mistake. Rinsing in cold water until the water is clear is the next step and then washing and drying as usual. I still had issue with the bleeding together of some of the words and image so I went ahead and grabbed my fabric markers and filled in the area with some purpled blue. I wasn’t able to find my black fabric marker or I would have tried that instead as it probably would have provided more coverage on the bleeds.

DIY Bleach Shirt

Fabric markers require you to heat in a dryer to set the color and then wash and dry as usual, so that’s what I did!

DIY bleach shirt

So the end result! Is it the perfect crisp edges that I hoped for? No, not so much but I love the fit of the shirt, I get compliment on it every place I wear it and I learned a lot from this DIY.

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Mistakes and How to fix! 

  • Instead of a paper stencil that gets wet and bleeds through and creates no barrier, trace the image onto freezer paper, cut the freezer paper stencil with the x-acto blade and iron it shiny side down onto the shirt.
  • Instead of over soaking your shirt spray only one or two sprays, wait a while or even better iron those sprays (heat activates bleach).

 

Have you made anything yourself? Do you love crafting? Share with me in the comments!

 

This post currently has 11 responses.

  • Peggy Nunn

    This is great. I want to make some with the girls. Thank you for the idea.

    • Lakota

      I ended up making my son a good night construction site one and my daughter a Moana one! They both really liked them. For extra fun we added a bit of glow in the dark puffy paint to theirs!

  • Lauryn R

    Wow, what an awesome idea! I love the way that your shirt turned out! I have always wanted to learn how to use a sewing machine, but I have yet to just buy one and learn. I do love being crafty though, I make all of my kids cards and Birthday cakes. I really want to try and leach shirt now, thank you so much for sharing! 🙂

    • Lakota

      Im self taught with the sewing machine, mostly i use the manual and youtube to learn what i need to get by! How awesome that you do cards and birthday cakes! What a great craft example for your little ones!

  • ellen beck

    Yep, I am a crafter or used to be until I found the internet, now I dont have as much time. I was a wicked tye die person loved doing it. I havent tried the bleach method, it is quite interesting. I really like your cut outs.I would almost try finding some plastic of some sort if you do shirts a whole lot. You should be abe to find it in the area where stencils are.

    • Lakota

      I know how that goes with time! I love tie dye! but Im always so nervous to mess it up i never start to begin with! haha. And thanks for the plastic tip i’ll have to look into that!

  • Dorothy Boucher

    I love it, I think it came out awesome looking and I love the colors you chose to do this t-shirt in.
    @tisonlyme143

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