Bleached out Tee's!

I recently stumbled on a new magazine in Barnes & Noble and fell in love.  I was inspried by the custom bleached shirts I saw and decided to give it a go myself.  Here's what I did.  Using my computer, I printed numbers and anchors from clip art images I have on a print shop program.  You could also use clip art from Word or Google images.  With my copier, I enlarged and/or reduced the images as needed to fit on the tees.  I used card stock so that once I cut the images out, I had a template ready to go.

 Using my templates, I then traced the shapes onto freezer paper.  I cut the shape from freezer paper and ironed them onto my shirts, following the instructions listed directly on the freezer paper box.  Be sure to iron the edges down really well.  I didn't do that on a few shirts and the bleached leaked under the stencil.

 
Make sure you have an area outside prepped for business.  We put black plastic sheeting down to protect the landscape and everyone wore gloves, aprons and art smocks.  The kids also wore protective googles (aka swim goggles).  We inserted cardboard squares inside the shirts.  We filled squirt guns and spray bottles with bleach, undiluted.  We liked the spray bottles best, and liked changing the nozzle for a streamlined or full spray.  The squirt guns were harder to fill and leaked a bit too much.

Once the kiddos had sprayed down the shirt with their preferred spray pattern, I took a hose and washed down the shirt.  The water also released the freezer paper pattern.  We then took the shirts inside to machine launder and dry.

Instant Custom Tees!!

Tips:  Some colors worked great.  We had great luck with red, navy, and teal.  Grey and pink did not turn out as well.  Don't be afraid to let the clorox sit long enough to see the color start to change.  I was nervous about burning holes into the shirts and didn't leave the bleach on long enough for some of the tees.

To find out more about the magazine that inspired this project, check out this post.

This project is linked up here:

Design Dazzle's Summer Camp

Tip Junkie Tip Me Tuesday
Creation Corner's Friday Link Party 

Freckled Laundry's Air Your Laundry Friday