Shirts!

    Last week I decided I would be creative and make a bleach pen shirt! I looked around on Pinterest for inspiration and instructions. This pin ended up being the most useful instruction-wise:

   Her shirt is so pretty! And she gives some really useful tips. Like that letting the bleach dry all the way gets you a white line, as opposed to washing the shirt with the bleach still wet, which leaves behind a little color. It seems like common sense, but I didn't think of that!

   So I bought myself a pretty blue shirt for $2.50 (they were on sale at work, so I got it extra cheap!) and went next door to Meijer and bought a bleach pen.
   I drew out my design on the shirt and let it dry. I had a lighter shirt, so I wanted completely white lines. Then I threw it in the wash and anxiously waited for it to finish.
   Then I pulled it out. Looked at it. And.... Nothing! The shirt looked exactly the same as it did before I bleached it! So, naturally, I tried it again. Surely it would work this time! I let it sit even longer, thinking that maybe this shirt just needed longer to absorb the bleach.
    This is the shirt after two tries:

   It still looked exactly the same as when I bought it (except maybe a bit more wrinkly).
   Determined to make a bleach pen shirt, I decided to try it again. Only this time, I bought a different shirt.
   And it was a completely different experience! Within minutes of putting the bleach on the shirt I started to see the color fading. So now I know not to buy Jerzee shirts for bleaching. Who knew they made bleach resistant shirts?!
   This is my third attempt:

    I didn't let it dry all the way; my lines were too thick for how absorbent this shirt was. The bottom design was about halfway dry when I put it in the wash, and the top design was barely on there - pretty much just long enough for me to draw the design.
   I had to draw it in three different segments. I drew the bottom design first. Then after washing/drying I drew the front half of the top design, washed, dried. Then the back half of the front. I had to split the top design into two parts because I couldn't spread the sleeve out like I wanted for the design I had in mind.

   Here are some tips of my own:

•  If you don't want spots on your shirt like mine has, let the bleach dry all the way.
•  To get thinner lines, hold the pen farther away from the shirt. You almost have to drag a short line of bleach behind you, if that makes sense.

   I still have some bleach left, so I'll probably make another shirt. At some point. Ha.

   Have a great week guys!