Custom Bleached Shirts

We are planning on working on different fun projects throughout the summer and this week we made custom bleached shirts for Olivia.

What you need:
-A shirt
-Freezer paper
-Bleach
-Spray bottle or water gun
-Cardboard
-Bucket or something to put the shirt in and get wet
-Rubber gloves (optional)

We couldn't find any plain colored shirts in her size so we got two tank tops from walmart.

1.  Draw on the wax paper what you want on your shirt... letters, shapes, designs.  Then you put them on your shirt wax side down.  What is under the wax paper will remain the color of the shirt and what is sprayed with the bleach will turn a lighter color.

2. Iron the wax paper onto your shirt (wax side down).  Make sure your iron is on medium heat and the steam is not on.  Iron for a couple of minutes until the wax paper is stuck all around the edges.

3.  Put a piece of cardboard inside your shirt so the bleach wont bleed through

4.  Fill your spray bottle or water gun with bleach.  You can cut the bleach with some water if you would like.

5.  Now spray your shirt!  Make sure you are not spaying into the wind or dripping the bleach onto your self.  The shirt will look better in only a portion of your shirt is sprayed instead of the entire thing and it also looks different if you spray a light mist or if you drip a lot of the bleach in one spot.

6.  It took several minutes before I could tell the bleached portion of the shirt turning.  And I left the bleach on the pink shirt for about 15 minutes.  It may just depend on what kind of shirt it is.

7.  When the shirt gets to the color you want it then put it into some water and swish it around.  The paper will probably start to peel off.  I went ahead and took all the freezer paper off at this point.

8.  After rinsing off your shirt put it into the washer machine before wearing.

I think they turned out pretty well.  The pink one does not look as good and the letters bled through.  I'm not sure if that was because I didn't iron them on as well or because I left the bleach on too long... or both.

The next day I found a brown shirt from Olivia's room and traced an elephant onto the wax paper.  I really like how this one turning out.  It started turning colors almost immediately after we sprayed the bleach.  It could have been because of the color of the shirt or maybe because we were out int he middle of the day and the sun was hot!  Either way I like it a lot!