Bleached Shirts--A fun family project

I was trying to think of what I could do with a red t-shirt I bought over the holidays and never got to.  I thought I could Glitter it with a heart, but my daughter already has 2 of these designs.  Then talking with my friend, Melanie, who gave me the walking tacos idea suggested using bleach.

I had purchased some laminating paper for a valentine's project my daughter and I are working on and thought that would be a great stencil medium, instead of just a piece of cardboard that can move around.

I thought I would keep this one simple.  I cut out a heart and stuck it to the t-shirt.  Make sure to rub down for a secure fit.

We purchased a spray bottle for the Dollar Store, and filled with bleach and a little water. (not sure if there is a special ratio but this worked out for us)

Place something in the middle of the shirt, like a piece of cardboard or plastic grocery bags.

Don't saturate the shirt just light watering.

Sprayed a few times until the color started to fade.  Unfortunately the color became more of an orange color: as I thought it would have turned more of a pink.

Let it dry completely.

Here is the result.

Wanted to try a stenciled version as well.  So I decided to decorate the back of her t-shirt.

Cut the inside of the heart out and just spayed inside of that.

A little spillage but I will know better next time!!

My son then said he wanted a Captain Rex shirt.

Well this was a little more tricky.  I found a free printable mask online here,  Shrunk it to fit appropriately for his size, 75%.  I then used an exacto knife to cut out the parts I wanted bleached out.

Don't know if I could have done this one as well without a sticky base.  Will make the Glittered t-shirts with this for now on too!

I made the stencil larger this time to avoid any spillage and immediately wiped off any wet spray.  When that dried, I cut the paper around and left about 1/2 inch and sprayed entire shirt for a galazy affect.

Here is the result.

He was thrilled and so excited that I could make a "boyish" craft for him finally.

This is really inexpensive if you find the t-shirts on sale and we all have bleach at home.    Just wash it in cold water alone or with white clothes just incase some bleach comes out.

What is your favorite?

Happy shirt making