Experimenting with Bleach

I've seen a few fun uses of bleach on t-shirts lately and just had to try them out for myself. The first technique I read about on MADE. When I saw it I immediately thought of this shirt.



Its one of K's shirts that I accidentally bleached after she had only worn it a couple times. She came home from daycare with a mystery stain on the shirt. When this happens I spray it with OxiClean and wash it whenever I get around to it. Well this time leaving the OxiClean on it for a couple days left bleach spots. I was bummed! So it's been sitting in her drawer for a few months because I've been mad at myself for having ruined an almost-new shirt.



I think I got a little heavy-handed with the spray bottle. I wish it had turned out a little more mottled. I like the results on the back better.



And shirring strikes again! Since I didn't think she would fit in this shirt when long-sleeve weather comes back, I decided to give the sleeves a trim. Rather than try to hem the sleeves, I stitched two lines of elastic thread to give the shirt a cute puffed sleeve.



Bleach experiment #2 came from this post via craftgawker. Although I couldn't read it (it's in Danish), the photos were self-explanatory. I wanted to use something with simple lines and what's better for a 6 year old boy than Transformers?

I traced the design onto contact paper and cut it out with an exacto knife- definitely the most time-consuming part of the process. I peeled off the backing and stuck the contact paper to the shirt.



I put a cookie sheet inside the shirt to keep the bleach from reaching the back of the shirt. I'm glad that it's summer and I can do all this bleaching outside! This time I mixed the bleach with a little bit of water. Here's a photo after I sprayed the bleach- you can see the color just starting to change.



I sprayed it off with the hose after a few minutes and here it is drying on the bench. Shirts dry FAST in these 100 degree temps!



I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out! And so is the kid.

Shirred Sundress

I've caught the shirring bug again!



I realized a couple weeks ago that K doesn't have many summery dresses in her closet, and what's more comfortable than a dress in the summer? I wanted to make something nice and easy, so of course I thought of the shirred dress I made last summer. No pattern to cut out and directions to follow-- just a rectangle of fabric and some elastic thread!



I changed it up just a bit by making ruffly little straps. Again, just rectangles of fabric with a couple rows of elastic stitching. This stuff makes anything look fancier!



I had some trouble getting the tension figured out this time. The last time I worked with elastic thread I was using my old sewing machine and I tried using the same settings, but wasn't getting good results. I finally realized that I had to hold the tails of my top thread and elastic thread very tight for the first inch or so of stitching. Otherwise I was ending up with a loopy mess of elastic on the back. It may take a little time getting the tension worked out, but once you have the right settings, sewing with elastic thread is easy peasy! And the results are so fun!