Basic tee upgrade ~ bleach pen

Time for another plain tee shirt upgrade! 

 

You'll need:

• plain cotton t-shirt in any color
• Clorox bleach pen (found in the laundry aisle or an off-brand one found at Dollar Tree)
• white towel or newspaper
• inspiration image (optional)

Before we get started, I want to state up front that I'm not trying to pass these ideas off as my own, because this is by no means an original idea or project. It's been done and done and done some more. But if YOU haven't seen it done yet, maybe this might just inspire you to give it a try! It's easy, my friend. EASY.

 

First, pick out your shirt.  Mine is yet another fabulous Target tee in my favorite 'boyfriend' style like last time, only this one's gray.

 

Next, choose an image you want to recreate, or come up with one of your own.  Here's my inspiration image that I found online.

 

 

I laid my plain ol' boring shirt out flat and placed a white towel inside the tee. (Any kind of protective layer will work, just make sure it's not something you'll be really sad about ruining. We're working with bleach, ya know.)   I knew I wanted my design to go up one side of my shirt and maybe wrap around a little, so I laid it with the seam and a little of the back showing.

 

Next, grab your Clorox bleach pen, SHAKE IT GOOD and go to town!  (I only shook mine a little bit because I didn't want tons of bubbles, but I think you really do need to shake it well. I wonder if I were to shake it better if maybe the bleach wouldn't have bled and I would've gotten a sharper design?)

 The bleach pens have two tips, wide and a fine, and obviously you'll want to use the fine tip for a design like this. 

 

Move quickly so your design is somewhat uniform in color by the time you get done, but if you intend to let your lines turn completely white then no need to hurry.

 

 

 

 There will be bubbles that come out as you draw, but don't worry too much about it.  Pop 'em, blend in the blobs with a toothpick or pencil and move on.  Accept that your finished product won't be perfect and that the imperfections are what make it unique!

 

 Allow the bleach gel to sit for a couple of minutes to pull some of the color out of your shirt, but DON'T WALK AWAY FROM IT!  Keep a close eye on the shirt so as soon as the bleach has done its job you can rinse it off.  Again, if you're going for white lines then no need to fret about how long it sits.  In theory, you could let the gel dry completely.  (In my two attempts at doing this, though, the longer I let my bleach sit the more it bled.  Again, maybe because I didn't shake very well.)

When it's ready, CAREFULLY carry your shirt to the tub and turn on the shower.  Rinse off all of the bleach gel, using your hands to help it come off. 

If you can, throw your shirt into the laundry to finish getting the bleach out.  We were still in the hotel when I did this project so I just used some baby shampoo to wash out the bleach and then laid it out to dry.

 

 I really love that the gray turns sort of a peachy color when it's bleached.  Cool, huh??

  

Check out these other bleach pen projects I found online.  You could go with a really complex doodle design like this one~

link

 

or a pretty henna design like this~

link

 

or even write words or lyrics on your project, like this one!  I love that she even added some embroidered detail to it!  See the red?

link

 

How about using a bleach pen to jazz up some plain SHOES?  WHAT A GREAT IDEA!

link

 

I'm totally doing this to a baby onesie.  Watch me.

link

 

And you know what?  Who says you have to do a super intricate design?  I'm kind of loving this kids' tee with the simple, happy sunshine face.  Plus, what an awesome way to disguise a stain!

link

Nobody said that your project HAS to be clothes (or shoes), either!
How about:

• cloth napkins
• a scarf
• a tablecloth
• curtains
• throw pillows
• quilt squares
• a baby bib
• a baseball cap - pretty much anything!  Just remember when choosing what to draw on that bleach works best on natural fibers. 

 

Have fun bleaching!  ;)

Basic tee upgrade ~simple embroidery

I've developed a crush on Target's line of Mossimo tees. *sigh* They're cute, soft, nice and long, have a flattering feminine fit without being too snug, come in lovely colors and are CHEAP! Not "cheap" like, they're gonna fall apart after three washes cheap, but super inexpensive. Like, $6-$10 cheap. LOVE IT.

But, they're plain. This isn't necessarily bad, but I find myself wanting to fancify them a little. The other day I was browsing my Google Reader blog list and came upon this post by Eve over at evieivyoverstreet.

First of all, Eve and I are kindred spirits.  She's the crafty kind who loves thrifty goodness as much as I do, AND we both have 3 sons, one of which is named Finn!  We've even traded our crafts before.  Cool, girl, that Eve. 

Okay, back to the post.  Eve wrote about how she awesomeized a plain thrifted tee with a few notions that she had on hand.  While I didn't have any plain thrifted tees that needed some love, I did have a beloved Target tee or two that I felt could use some umph. 

Exhibit A.

Off to the craft store I went and picked up a skein of yellow pearlized cotton.  (You could also use embroidery floss for this, by the way.)

I plopped down in front of the TV that evening and during a few episodes of House Hunters on HGTV I added some pizazz to my previously plain pullover.  (Alliteration!  Love it when that happens.)

I stitched a couple of rows of running stitches along the neckline, some X's on the pocket...

...and some zigzags on the sleeve and hem.

Nothing too dramatic, but definitely more interesting than before!

Thank you, Eve, for the inspiration.

I have another tee shirt project coming up that was also inspired by her adorable tee, so check back soon! And be sure to pop into Eve's Etsy shop and see all the vintage cuteness she has for sale in there.

Curtain turned blanket

Sometimes it's fun to just walk through Target and see what kinds of deals I can find. Recently I came across this curtain by Dwell Studios that had been marked down from $19.99 to $5.06. It had been opened and taped shut again, but otherwise there was absolutely nothing wrong with it.


I love, love, love that big, fun polka dot print and even considered buying this very same crib set for my baby way back when. But since I ended up making his bedding and don't need a polka dot curtain panel in any of my kids' rooms right now, I decided to turn it into a blanket instead.

The edges were already finished and it had a liner for the backing, so that cut out several steps for me.

I laid the curtain out on the floor, then placed a roll of cotton batting on top of that.

I trimmed down the batting to be the size I wanted...

...then tucked it in between the two layers of fabric and pinned it along the edges.

I sewed the batting in place on all 4 sides, then used some safety pins in the middle to keep all 3 layers together while I hand quilted some of the circles. I really like the bunchy look you get when you pull your running stitch tight.

And here it is all done! I don't know if you could call this a quilt since it isn't made up of lots of little pieces of fabric, but I did enjoy doing the hand quilting on it. It's really relaxing and gave me something to do while I watched movies on the couch.

Here's the other side with the stitched circles.

This little girl asked me before I was even done if the blanket was for her, and since I didn't have anyone in mind to give it to I decided she could have it. Besides, I haven't made her a blanket in a long time. She deserves a new one.

Strapless Dress Revamp

I found this strapless dress in Old Navy's clearance section the other day and decided that for the price it was worth buying. Now, I'm not a "strapless" kinda gal, but I figured I could alter it a bit and make it more me.



I started by cutting off the bottom 6"...

... then another 6" above that.

I cut an inch off of the original hemmed piece, then hemmed the other 6" piece to match the hem on the other one. Confusing? Sorry.

New straps/ties came from the 1" piece I cut off. I folded it in half lengthwise (right sides together), ironed it flat then stitched down the long side. I turned it inside out with a little safety pin and tied a knot in one end. This knit fabric was a little tricky to work with because it's the kind that likes to curl to one side when it's stretched even slightly. This made sewing the straps a bit tough, but ironing them flat before sewing helped a ton.

The two hemmed 5" pieces were sewn together, end to end, then gathered to make a ruffle.

I decided to pin it to the dress with the raw edge showing to mimic the little ruffle at the top of the bodice.

The ruffle gets stitched in place and my new, slightly shorter dress now has a cute little detail at the bottom.

The ties were tacked to the bodice with a wide, short zig-zag stitch, and it's done!

The minute I finished the dress I threw on a white tee shirt and some flip-flops to go with it and the kids and I headed to the park for lunch.

I love comfy, breezy dresses for summer. I'm definitely a fan of the floor-length knit dress, but sometimes losing a few inches is a good thing, too. Now this dress is a little more casual and a lot more my style!

Re-Revamped Cardigan

After a bit of a botch up, I think I'm finally ready to show you the outcome of my cardigan makeover. I started out with this:


...which became this, which I hated.

Then it became this, which I like.

I made the ruffle by hemming two sides of a thin strip of fabric, then running a long stitch down the middle and scrunching up the fabric by pulling on the threads. The ruffle got pinned in place all the way around...

... then sewn in place with a double row of stitches.

These turquoise mother-of-pearl buttons were too perfect to pass up.

And they just add that little something that it was missing with the old white buttons.

This has actually been finished for a couple of weeks now, but I was waiting for an opportunity to get a photo of me wearing it, but it never happened. Hope you don't mind.
This little number will soon be gifted to my lovely sister-in-law, whom this reminded me of the entire time I was putting it together. Hope she likes it!