How to Bleach Stencil a Halloween T-shirt

Stacy Davis
by Stacy Davis
5 Materials
$5
1 Hour
Easy

If you’ve ventured to the Halloween side of TikTok then you’ve probably seen all the bleach tie dying. There have been viral videos using stencils to make the shirts Halloweeny.

My son had me bleach dye this shirt a few months ago but this was going to be my first time using a stencil and bleAch.

I ordered two packages of stencils off Amazon. You know the sound. “I may have over committed…” I think I may have Halloween stencils for the rest of my life.


There are twenty stencils in this package.

And twelve in this one.

I grabbed a couple of shirts and started getting ideas.

Here is a picture of ALL the stencils. The possibilities are endless.

I like this one, too.

It is so fun when you have so many options.

Let me tell you, your spray bottle makes a ton of difference when you bleach spray. The small one makes more of a mist and the big one is best described as a thin sloppy spray.

To prepare your area, get your bleach spray ready which is 50 bleach and 50 water. Also get your peroxide bath ready. I just put a healthy splash of peroxide in a small tub of water to neutralize the bleach when you have reached your desired look.

I put a piece of cardboard inside my shirt to protect the back.

I put a white oval where I wanted to stencil the words.

At this point this is how it looked.

I removed one of the stencils to check the progress.

I put the word stencil in the middle.

I added more jack o lanterns to the sleeves.

Wait until you see how spooky this sleeve comes out with those eyes.

This time I went in with my mister full of bleach and water. I went rather heavy on the words.

I sprayed each sleeve.


I let it sit in the sun for several minutes.

I flipped it and did the back. I wish I had done more but it was hot. I can always add more later.

Give it a good swish around in there to make sure it is saturated.I put it in the peroxide bath for a few minutes.


**At the time I forgot, you should not mix bleach and peroxide. So to safeguard yourself, rinse the bleached shirt with water before dropping it into the peroxide bath.**

Now you want to wash the shirt and dry normally.

This one looks like it is literally on fire.

See what I mean about how spooky the eyes turned out.

I think it is really cool. Are you brave enough to spray bleach on your T-shirt?

Now I’m ready for the green and purple T-shirts. What stencil combos would you like to see?


I think this might be next!

I’m ready for Spooky Season!

Suggested materials:
  • Halloween stencils   (Amazon)
  • T-shirt   (Michaels)
  • Spray bottles   (Amazon)
See all materials

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Comments
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 1 comment
  • Joy Walsh Joy Walsh on Sep 30, 2021

    Hi, what is the peroxide for? Doesn't the bleach neutralise when you wash it? (It's not easy to get peroxide in the UK but I'd love to try this idea!)

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