How to Pass the Time

Being stuck at home all the time has been driving me a little crazy. So, I’ve decided to try some crafts at home that I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I decided to do a reverse tie dye shirt and a new trend I’ve been seeing where people are bleaching parts of their jeans.

I grabbed items that I already had in my house to do these crafts. I know I would need a black shirt, a pair of dark jeans, rubber bands, a spray bottle, a sponge, and some bleach. I probably should’ve used gloves, but I didn’t have any so I just tried to be as careful as I could with the bleach.

First, I started out by soaking my black shirt in water to help it absorb the bleach. After I wrung out most of the water just so the shirt was damp, I grabbed a part of the black shirt and started twirling it in a spiral motion. I used the rubber bands to hold the shirt in place. If you’ve ever tie dyed anything then it’s the same exact steps, but I’m using a black shirt instead of a white one.

I used about five or six rubber bands to hold the shirt in place. I decided to do these projects outside so I could have some better ventilation and not have to inhale nasty chemicals while doing my projects. I then took my spray bottle full of bleach and started spraying one side. I could see parts of the black shirt turning a burnt orange color and I knew I needed to let the bleach soak up into the fabric for a bit, so I flipped over the shirt and started spraying the other side. Once I finished spraying both sides with the desired amount of bleach I let it sit outside for about 15 minutes. Once my time was up, I took it inside and started rinsing out the shirt.

Now that my first project was done, I moved onto the next one that was going to be a little more time consuming. I’ve seen some people who have bleached parts of their jeans cover the parts they want to leave the same in a sack of some sort and I knew I only wanted to do half of my pants. So I grabbed a spare Walmart sack (because we have a whole drawer full of them) and some tape so I could make sure I was only spraying bleach on the half I wanted to be bleached.

Once I had half of my pants covered up with the bag and tape I then proceeded to spray the exposed half with bleach. Once I had a good amount covered I took my sponge and used it to help rub the bleach into the fabric. I knew it was going to take a lot of bleach and some waiting so I switched between the front and the back of the shorts to help make the process a little quicker. I kept repeating this until the one side was the color I desired. I let the bleach dry just a little bit more into the fabric and then brought the pants inside to rinse out the excess bleach.

I knew after I was finished with both products I’d have to wash them to get both items full cleared of the bleach. So, once I was done with both the shirt and the pants I put them in the wash together and ran them on a quick clean cycle on cold cold. I prefer to air dry most of my clothes so I set them outside for a few hours and as easy as that I had a whole new quarantine outfit.