Day 6 - Bleach Print Shirts

My kids have loved doing tie-dye the past few summers, but since one can only have so many tie-dyed shirts, I decided to try something new. I've had friends do these type of shirts in the past but I followed a basic guideline from here.

How-To Make Bleach Print Shirts

Supplies

• Colored t-shirts (ours are from Dollar Tree)
• Spray bottle
• Bleach
• Gloves (to protect hands from bleach)
• Cardboard boxes (cereal boxes work fine)
• Scissors
• Tape if you want

We thought about sponging the bleach solution on but decided against it (that's why we had sponges and a cake pan)

1. Cut shapes out of cardboard. We just used cracker boxes. Most of the shapes we did free-hand, but I did print a silhouette of a car that I traced. 
   
2. Mix a solution of half bleach, half water inside your spray bottle. A stronger solution might work well too but since I'm working with kids, I decided to go with a 50/50 mix. 
3. Put a sheet of cardboard inside your shirt. This protects the shirt from getting image bleached through to the other side.
4. Arrange shapes on your shirt. I just set the shapes onto my shirt, but for the kids we did tape them down so they wouldn't blow away.
   
5. Spray with bleach/water solution. From about 2 feet away, spray around all your images, but avoid soaking the shirt. If it's too wet the bleach will bleed under your stencil.
   
6. Allow image to develop. We removed the stencils and let the bleach sit until the surrounding area was a light as we wanted.
   
7. Rinse shirt. To stop the bleach from doing its job, give it a quick rinse with the hose.
   
8. Wash before wearing. You want to be sure you've removed all the bleach. 
   

Tips:

*Use simple, clearly defined shapes without too much detail

*Wear clothes you don't care about in case of bleach spills

*Make sure you give the bleach enough time to develop before rinsing

*Darker shirts work better (we really like the rust color the bleach produces on the black and navy blue shirts)

*Spray from above as opposed to from the side. This prevents the bleach from going under your stencils. 

*Don't over-saturate your shirt. It seemed to work best doing a light but completely covering spray from about a 2-feet above the shirt. (also, make sure your spray bottle lid is on tight so it doesn't spill on your shirt like it did for kid 4)

Have you done bleach print shirts? Share your images in the comments.