If anyone is looking for an easy yet cool way to spruce up an item of clothing, grab some bleach. Ok, you’ll also need a little squirt bottle, a hanger, some cardboard, and an old towel/tablecloth you don’t mind getting bleach on, too.
I’ve had a few things I picked up a Goodwill that I wanted to try this technique on for a while now (ahem, like 5 or 6 months), and well, a few days ago was finally the day. Thankfully it all turned out waaaaay cooler than I thought it would, even with quite a few blobs.
Anywho, it’s basically strategic blech panting, or in this case, scribbling. You just need the right squirt bottle and an item of clothing where bleach miiiiight make a significant impact on it should there happen to be an encounter. Some people get super strategic and paint it on with a paintbrush, but I like the free flow of this technique.
Here are the deets.
Tools: Bleach, a squirt bottle with a micro-fine tip (I bought these), some cardboard, packing paper (I used this for long sleeves, but you can also just use more cardboard), and an old towel or trash bag/sheet/something you don’t mind getting bleached a little.
Environment: Not 100% necessary but this was great to do outside on a sunny day.
Clothing: Wear something you don’t mind if any bleach happens to splatter on you.
Here’s the how-to:
Cover a large surface with your towel/tablecloth/trash bag.
Lay out the item you want to bleach, and insert some cardboard so the front doesn’t bleed through to the back. The same goes for any sleeves. Bleach will seep through, so this is important.
Fill up that little squirt bottle with bleach.
Sketch out your design in chalk if you’d like. Or else, I just went for it and freehanded these pieces.
Go for it. Tip the bottle over, and LIGHTLY draw out your designs. You can’t really un-bleach anything, but you can always go and add more. Barely squeeze the bottle. I learned this the hard way on my first tee, hence the large blob on the front. Good thing it still looks cool though.
The bleach will start to work and you’ll see the radness begin. Note: The thicker and sturdier the fabric the easier it is to draw out. So cutoffs were much easier than a tee. The sweatshirt was much easier too. Tees = a pain in zee butt because the micro tip on the squeeze bottle gets stuck in the fabric. But once again, it still ends up looking cool.
Fill up the front with your design, then flip over and fill up the back.
When you’re done, hang it up until it dries ( still with the cardboard in it). I learned this doesn’t take long, especially if it’s sunny out.
Throw in the wash with NOTHING else other than other bleach art items in it for a quick scrub a dub.
Let air dry…or you can throw it in the drier, I just was in an air-drying mood.
Voila. Fun new wearable art.
I’ll definitely be heading back to Goodwill tomorrow to pick up more stuff to bleach (tees, hoodies, jeans, maybe some sweats, we shall see what else pops up), And I’ll be adding all of these to the shop.
Maybe I’ll try bleaching a one-piece or something, too. Or socks. Or a jean jacket, or…
Ok, I’ll stop. It’s fun. Give it a shot.
