As I was perusing Pinterest last week, I came across a project to revive old t-shirts (or at least give them a new lease on life and maybe wear them again!). The premise was simple – use a Clorox Bleach Pen to draw graphics on the t-shirts, rinse off and wash/dry. I found 3 t-shirts that I almost never wear and rolled up my sleeves to get to work. I decided to draw them freehand after making some doodles in my sketchbook. I was really happy with the two bolder looks and let them sit to supposedly bleach away. When I checked on the progress 15 minutes later, I was sad to see that there was no change in color. So I let them sit another 15 minutes. After more than 30 minutes, the bleach still wasn’t working. I thought perhaps the content of the t-shirts may have something to do with it. Two of them were mostly cotton with a touch of polyester, but one was 100% cotton and should be affected by bleach. I decided to rinse them off and chalk this up to a lesson. But I’m still trying to figure out the lesson….t-shirt content? Bleach strength? Color of dye? This will require a trip to the store to look at the different bleach pens to see if there is one specifically for whites (and therefore a higher concentration). To be continued……..
Original Pin
Supplies
Prepping the t-shirt with waxed paper and newspaper
Simple first design on brown tee
A little more creative on tee #2
My favorite design (that sadly washed away….)
Flirting with Creativity 