Supplies:

1. Shirt (I used 100% cotton). Darker colors work best.
2. Household bleach.
3. Spray bottle that will hold the bleach.
4. Hydrogen peroxide.
5. A bucket or container that can fit your shirt.
6. Disposable gloves.
7. Stencil. Typically wood stencils are used, but I will show how you can make stencils with 7mil Blank Mylar Stencil Sheets and a Cricut machine with the purple strong grip mat.
8. A bucket with water.
9. My design can be found in my free library.
   • My library
   • Library password

Steps:

1. Wash your shirt and make sure it is completely dry. Use a lint brush if needed.

2. Make sure your stencil design is the correct size for your shirt and cut it out. I put my 7mil blank mylar stencil sheet on a purple strong grip mat. I Used the standard fine point blade, but a deep cut blade may work better. I used the stencil setting with more pressure. I needed to run this through 5 to 6 times. This means when the cut was finished instead of hitting the unload button I hit the go button again and it started the same cut again. If you unload the mat, then it will not cut in the same spot again. Watch my YouTube video for more information.

3. Take everything outside since you will be working with bleach. The sun also speeds up the process.

4. Fill the spray bottle with 1 part water and 1 part bleach. If you want it to change faster, then you can do a higher bleach ratio.

5. Fill your bucket with the hydrogen peroxide and water. You should have 1 part hydrogen peroxide to 10 parts water. I did 1 cup of hydrogen peroxide and 10 cups of water to make sure my entire shirt would be submerged. You will then need to rinse off your shirt with another buck filled with just water and/or a hose.

6. Now that everything is ready place your stencils down. Make sure to put cardboard or something inside your shirt so the bleach does not soak to the other side. Make sure to wear gloves and spray your stencil with the bleach mixture. You may want to use cardboard to help protect other areas of your shirt from getting extra bleach on them. I also recommend using one hand to help hold your stencil down especially in thin or delicate areas of your design.

7. When you are ready to stop the bleach from removing the color soak your shirt into the hydrogen peroxide and water bucket for 5 to 10 minutes. Swish the shirt every now and then.

8. Rinse your shirt well. I first sprayed my shirt with a hose, then soaked and rubbed it a bit in a bucket of just water to make sure you get all the hydrogen peroxide off.

9. You can let your shirt fully dry and repeat this process for anther design on your shirt if you wish your design to have different colors (bleaching stopped at different times). Once you are happy with your shirt, then you can wash it separately on cold.

If you use a black shirt the bleached areas should turn an orangish color and as the bleach eats away the color it will turn to a whiteish color. Different color shirts will have different color changes. Darker color shirts work best. The sun will help this change happen faster. I was not in a sunny area because I thought it would change faster and I would need more time. I did not want to keep waiting so I did not wait for parts of my design to fully change like I originally planned.

I also could not find my good spray bottle and used a cheap one I found that was not spraying very well. It was leaking and not spraying well. This caused my designs to not be a clean as I would have liked. Just know this was due to the spray bottle not the stencils. Wood stencil will work best because they help prevent some of the extra leaking of the bleach through the stencil. Next time I would probably dip a sponge brush into my bleach mixture and dab it over my stencil design for less bleeding.

You can also add tie dye to your shirt and the bleached areas will show the color the non bleach black areas of the shirt will not show the tie dye. You can also do tie dye techniques with the bleach (using rubber bands to create designs).