Tag Archives: up-cycle

by

Bleach Pen Design

I have a shirt that I love.  Unfortunately while cleaning the house I splashed bleach on it. The bleach did not splash into this design, but I can tell you how to make it look that way.  lol.

While checking out one of my favorite blogs (I am a Momma, Hear me Roar), I can across Bleach Pen Shirts.  I searched high and low to find a bleach pen in Canada.  But was unable to find one, until randomly there was some at the Dollar Store. 

Normally when painting or stamping a shirt there should be some cardboard between the layers, but I wanted something that would be waterproof.  An upside down jelly roll pan works like a charm.  Safety pins in the back keep the shirt fabric taut.

I love dress makers chalk.  It works great to make the design outline.  Now to come up with a design and hit it with the bleach pen.

The gel was not bleach-y enough so openend up the pen and added about 2 tbsp of Clorox bleach.  I wanted to keep the gel so that I would still have a thick consistency. 

Work slowly  to create even lines.  A thicker consistency gel would have worked like a charm.  But as it was, this worked just fine.

Rinse, Lather, Repeat!

Run the water over the jelly roll pan wrapped shirt!

I was once an assistant to an amazing hair stylist/ friend and she taught me that shampoo neutralizes bleach.  So I used foaming hand soap and lathered it all over the bleached area. 

Then rinse again!  A rinse/ spin cycle ensures that all the soap and bleach are gone.

Make sure to grab a few photos of the super creative and fun design.  Looking at your own work in a mirror gives you a different perspective on it.  That way you can add more or know that it is just right!

Now my mind is spinning with bleach pen ideas…. most anything can be bleached…. nothing can stop me now. 

by

cute little dresses

I got this idea from this blog.  It is called I’m a Momma Hear me Roar. She is a Super Star Blogger…. she was even on Martha Stewart.  Yeah,  I love her blog, always something interesting going on over there.

While Cheri was on The Martha Show she shared her very creative Up Cycled Dresses. I thought, hey, I have two little girls and a lot of previously loved T-shirts that just sit around doing nothing.  Check out her blog for the tutorial.

The first step was to gather up t-shirts and figure out what colors would look fun together. There was sure a lot of funky colors…. I guess I like bright fun colors, who knew?

We (me and the girlies) also pulled out stamps and paint as well as a permanent fabric marker. 

We sewed the fabric so that the wrong sides are together.  For the non-sewers, normaly you would sew with the right sides facing together. But I wanted the seams showing on the outside of the dress.

As seen here, I am not the only sewer in the family.  Girly is making a dress for her little sister… such a thoughtful girl. 

After painting, stamping, writing on, layering and sewing it was time to add a top to the dress.

Cute shirt, but stained and getting a little too short for my tall little girl.

 

 

So I did what any reasonable Mother crafter would do.  I cut the bottom off.

 

 

We sewed the shirt top to the new dress bottom and wha-la.  A dress.  And the very best part is that there is no hemming.  (I DO NOT like hemming) We made sure to use the bottom of an old t-shirt for the bottom of the dress so that we didn’t have to hem.  Here they are modeling their new dresses!