So it’s National Craft month and I havent posted ANYTHING yet, oh dear! But I have been busy. I’ve nearly completed my Penguin Quilt for the County Fair, and I’ve also been experimenting with a new art form: Bleach.
We all know bleach takes color out. A lot of the time, it’s totally on accident… you get a couple spots on a sweatshirt or pair of pants and the clothes are doomed to be worn strictly around the house forever.
Well, after seeing some posts on Threadbanger.com and watching some videos on youtube, I learned you can use bleach to intentionally remove color and create unique garments. What i found most interesting is that, when using a stencil, you get amazingly crisp designs that are literally permanently burned into the fabric… you’d thing the bleach would somehow bleed or leak a lot, but nope! It is also interesting to see what colors emerge when the fabric dye is bleached out… some blacks turn to pink, some to orange.
Here is a pretty one I made.. the bottom corner is Celtic knot. You can cut a stencil out of freezer paper and iron it onto the fabric. It is just tacky enough to adhere to the fabric and leave crisp lines when you remove it, and it doesn’t leave any residue behind.
I also got a really neat effect by using pine branches and interesting sticks I found in the yard (all already on the ground, no trees were harmed 😉 ). I layed them on the shirt and used a spray bottle full of bleach to mist the areas. Again, even the smallest twigs left such detail behind. The best part about this technique is that the patten is on there for good… it wont crack, fade or peel off… as long as you don’t was the items in bleach 😐 .
And I dont mean to brag…
but I am kind of a bid deal 😉
My projects made it onto an episode of
Threadbanger!
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