Image for article titled Give a Stained Shirt New Life By ‘Tie-Dying’ It With Bleach

Photograph: Charlie Lewis

There’s most likely a minimum of one beloved shirt in your closet that you simply not put on due to a small, unpleasant stain. Properly, no want to depart it hanging any longer—bleaching with tie dye is an effective way to present any barely stained garment a brand new life (and a brand new look). It’s like tie-dyeing with out the dye, because the bleach creates attention-grabbing swirls within the authentic colour.

Sure, you’re technically coping with a stain by protecting it up with a a lot bigger stain. However in a manner that appears way more intentional (and a little bit retro). Right here’s methods to do it your self.

What you’ll want

To tie dye a shirt with bleach, you’ll want the next:

  • The shirt you wish to “tie dye” — mild, stable colour shirts sometimes will prove the most effective, but when a shirt is stained anyway, you may as properly give it a attempt!
  • 1/2 cup of bleach
  • 1/4 cup of water
  • A sprig bottle (elective)
  • Rubber bands (elective)
  • A plastic drop fabric or rubbish bag (elective)

Put together your work area

Tie dye could be a messy course of, so that you’ll wish to just remember to have a plastic drop fabric or rubbish bag to guard your surfaces. You’ll additionally wish to placed on gloves to guard your palms from the bleach and ensure the garments you’re carrying are ones you don’t care about, otherwise you’ll quickly be repeating the method to bleach them, and on and on till you run out of garments.

Combine the bleach resolution

In a small bowl, combine collectively 1/2 cup of bleach and 1/4 cup of water. Pour the answer into the spray bottle if you’d like.

Prep the shirt

Subsequent, you’ll have to prep the shirt. Moist it with water after which wring it out in order that it’s damp however not soaking moist. Lay it flat in your work floor, pinch the half that you really want on the middle of the tie dye, and spin the shirt round that time (creating extra difficult tie dye patterns can be an possibility). You should use the rubber bands to safe it in place, or you may work to rearrange the shirt rigorously with out the rubber bands.

Apply the bleach resolution

You should definitely put on gloves whereas making use of the bleach resolution. Spray or pour the bleach resolution onto the shirt. You may apply the bleach roughly evenly for various results. Enable the shirt to sit down for 5 to 10 minutes, or till you see the specified impact.

Rinse and dry

When you’re proud of how your shirt appears, rinse it underneath chilly water till the bleaching course of has stopped. Toss it within the washer and run it as a separate load on the mild cycle, utilizing chilly water. Hold it as much as dry or tumble dry on low warmth.