How to DIY an Edgy Bleached and Distressed T-shirt
In this full t-shirt customization tutorial, I will demonstrate how to make a distressed t-shirt, including bleaching and painting the t-shirt.
The trick is to get all of these t-shirt customizations techniques to work together with art and fashion blending seamlessly.
Are you ready to make your own bleached, distressed, fully-customized t-shirt? Then let’s start!
Tools and materials:
- Black cotton t-shirt
- Bleach
- Assorted fabric paints and brushes
- Bowl
- Spray bottle
- Scissors
- Gloves
- Water
- Shower
- Washing machine
1. Begin with bleaching
Mix water and bleach in a bowl. You could use straight bleach, but I added water so the effect is less intense.
Put half your t-shirt into the bowl with the bleach and water.
Soak well and then add a bit of hot water to the bowl. The hot water will make the bleaching process happen a bit faster.
And add a bit more bleach.
Let the t-shirt soak in the solution for about a half-hour, to get the reddish result.
When you are satisfied with the color, wash the bleach off the t-shirt. I did this with the shower wand.
Lay your wet t-shirt on a table, and use a spray bottle to apply bleach to your whole t-shirt.
Be patient while you wait for the result from the bleach spray.
When you are happy with the result, rinse off the bleach and then thoroughly wash the t-shirt in your washing machine.
Here’s the final result of my bleaching.
2. Distress your t-shirt
To make the distressing look natural, don’t cut holes in your t-shirt, but rather poke holes with small scissors and then rip them.
Don’t make your holes too big, and try to vary the sizes.
I made clusters of holes in a few areas of the fully-bleached half of my t-shirt.
3. Custom paint your t-shirt
Before you start painting, insert some cardboard into your t-shirt, to keep the paint on one side of the t-shirt only.
Use a small piece of soap to sketch out your design in the unbleached half of your t-shirt.
Choose your paint colors and start painting in your sketched design.
Experiment with mixing colors to get different light effects in your painting.
You can create the effect of movement in your custom painting by adding some wide strokes with a large flat brush.
Add some paint splatters for more expression.
Use a small brush to add details to your painting.
Distressed, bleached t-shirt
Here is my finished, bleached, distressed and painted t-shirt that I named “The Last Day of Dinosaurs”. What do you think?
I hope you try making your own distressed t-shirt creation and leave a comment to let me know what your inspiration was and how it turned out.
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This is awesome!!