Adventures with bleach

Inspired by these blogs (1,2) I've tried bleaching a few of my old things.

This was a t-shirt that my friend Amy gave me for my 16th birthday. (thanks amy.) Well, we could just say it isn't quite my style anymore. I still really liked the fit of the tee. So I thought to myself, "Hey, if I could make the whole tee be tan colored, then you wouldn't be able to read the words quite so much!"

Good thinking, self. 

 So I put it in a plastic bin and poured straight bleach over it. (I know you're supposed to use water too, but I didn't.) All the black seeped out and man it smelled horrible!

I left it in the bleach for a couple of hours. 

Washed it by hand in the sink. And hung it up in the shower to dry.

 This is the result! Holy smokes!

I love the new color.

According to this color chart, I think it's either "jasmine" or "Naples yellow." I'm good with that. they're both exotic! Just my style. 

What do you think? Would you ever try bleaching the crap out of something you own?

xo steph

Skirt from Dress!

I've had this dress for several years now, and it was getting dingy from so much wear, tear, and love. It has a metallic print that started to rub off. It just made it look dirty. Not to mention that it was borderline short back before marriage, but now it is definitely too short! 

It sat in my D.I. bag for a long time, but I decided to pull it out and see what I could do with it!

Step 1.Cut off the top. This dress had smocking in the middle, so I cut above the smocking.

Step 2. Hem the top raw edge.

Step 3. Bleach test. I wanted a change of color, especially considering dingy metallic print. So I used the waistband ties that I had cut off to test how the color would turn out. After I let them dry I could see what the final color would look like. (Bleached items turned out surprisingly lighter that anticipated once they dried)

Step 4. Bleach the item. I let the skirt sit in 1:1 parts bleach and hot water for about 1 hour.

Step 5: Wash and rinse item. I hand washed the skirt several times before a through rinse and dry. 

THE RESULT

It took me so long to put out this tutorial, because I so wish I had amazing pictures like all the amazing bloggers out there, but I've decided it's better to post than not, so here it is! comments are always loved!