Bleach Tie Dye Shirts | DIY Project

This project had me a little nervous... my kids, playing with bleach?  Really, what could go wrong?  I decided we would go ahead and attempt it but made sure to lay out the rules first.  Fingers crossed we started.

Supplies needed: 
Solid color t-shirts (we got t-shirts from Michael's at 50% off; under $2!);
bleach;
spray bottle with fine mist;
water guns (I used Dollar Store bottles instead, guns filled with bleach would have turned ugly);
freezer paper cut into whatever shape you want (I was out.  I used stick on letters.  They weren't thick enough. I don't suggest using this method so stick with freezer paper);

Iron on the cut out of the freezer paper to the shirt then hang outside on a line with a piece of cardboard inside the shirt.

First spray around the letter or cut-out with bleach using the fine mist sprayer.  Then let the kids spray the rest of the shirt using the bottles or water gun.

Remember the important safety rules:  No spraying each other.  No spraying when your brother is near your shirt. Be sure to wash your hands.

One out of three ain't bad for these guys.

I swear, nobody got hurt.  I think his favorite part was washing his hands.  He sat there for a good 15 minutes

Once you're done spraying you can let it sit in the sun for a few minutes.  It doesn't take long.  The bleach will eat through the fabric if you leave it too long so wash them in cold water fairly quickly.  Then wash and dry.  This is what the letters would have looked like if I had ironed on freezer paper instead of using the regular paper cut outs.

The finished product wasn't too bad considering the mistakes we made. You can't really see the E on one but the A showed up okay. The boys are super proud of the shirts that they made and wanted to wear them right away (yes, they've been through the wash already).  I'm happy to have shirts for them that only cost $2.

There was one injury as a direct result of our project...  Thing 1 asked me what the clothes pins were for and I told him to hold your nose closed.  I didn't think he'd actually try it on his nose.