DIY: Rockin' shirts

Summer is winding down here in the hills of WV, although you wouldn't know it with our killer humidity.  Since my kiddos only had a few days left before they headed back to school we decided to do a fun little project: bleached shirts.  I'll admit that I saw this somewhere else but thought it was too super cool not to share. 

Here are the essentials for your clan to make your own:
Colored T-shirts, ours came from Wal-Mart for $3. You can get cheaper ones at Hobby Lobby but I like my girls to wear the more "girl fit" ones.
Freezer paper
Bleach
Iron
Spray bottle and optional squirt guns
cardboard
Gloves

First things first, you and your kiddos need to determine what you want to put on the shirt: initials, a football, crown...whatever.  Our daughter is having a rockstar b-day party in a few weeks so they wanted to make shirts for it.


Print out your stencil, cut it out.  Then transfer it to the freezer paper and cut it out.
Now,  iron the freezer paper onto the shirt with the waxy side down.

Mix the bleach with water, I did about a 1:1 mixture.  I couldn't find squirt guns so we just used a spray bottle and adjusted the nozzle for the desired spray. 

Then head outside, hang the shirts up on a clothes line with cardboard in the middle to protect the back.

Spray a light layer around the stencil then adjust the nozzle to a more direct spray and hand the bottle over to your kiddos.  *** Make sure your kids are old enough to understand that they should only spray the shirt, not others or drink the water.  Use gloves to if your bottles leak like ours did***

 Let the kids spray them a bit, in the sun it won't take long to start seeing the change.  Notice the intense concentration!

Then, let them hang out a bit until they reach the desired level of fade.  If you leave it too long the bleach will start eating through the clothes though.

When they have faded to your satisfaction take them in , remove the freezer paper, and throw them in the wash to get the bleach out.  I wouldn't wash them with any other clothes though!

Now, get ready to be a total rockstar:

Here is a close up of little sister's.  She fully intends to wear it to preschool the first day!

So, $3 shirts + household products = ending the summer on a high note....Hey, a music note! That would be a cool design too!  I think this would also be awesome for custom onesies and plan to make some for a prego friend. 

Stay tuned for step 3 of the DIY Stationary Set later this week!