DIY bleach shirt (a great way to make team shirts)

This Saturday I am running the Dirty Dash race with Ammon and a couple of friends from work. 

A long time ago, we decided that our team name would be: The Septic Tanks. (Ammon's idea) 

It's brilliant.

We've been wanting to make team shirts for quite some time, but didn't exactly know what to do. 

I was so excited when I finally found a cheap and easy way to make team shirts. 

There are many different ways you can use bleach to design your own shirt, but I'm going to show you how I made my shirt. Here is the final product:

Pretty sweet eh? It's not perfect, but not too bad for my first try. 

Alright. Here's what you do. 

Step one. Buy everything you will need. This includes a dark shirt that is 100% cotton, liquid bleach, a spray bottle, and label paper. (The whole piece of paper is one giant sticker) I couldn't find the paper at wal-mart, but you can get 25 sheets at Staples for only $13. As for everything else, wal-mart is perfect. 

 

Step two. Type up the words you will need on Word. Pick a font that will be easy to cut out! To make our team shirt a little more exciting, I found the following clipart online:

Again, pick something that will be easy to cut out. 

Step Three. Print out everything you will need onto the sticker paper. 

Step Four. Cut out everything carefully and place the stickers where you want. 

Step Five. Pour bleach into the spray bottle and add almost the same amount of water. (The darker the shirt, the less bleach you will need) Now you are ready to spray your shirt! It is ideal to do it outside, but I didn't have my own yard, so I did it in the shower. Wear gloves. Be careful because bleach is potent. BEFORE YOU SPRAY: understand that the bleach doesn't work right away. So if you don't see anything at first, don't go crazy and spray a ton. Wait it out and you will start to see your results. If you want your shirt to be speckly, then tighten the spray bottle. If you like drips down your shirt, then loosen the spray bottle and spray dart like streams at the shirt. I did a little bit of both.  

Step six. As soon as it looks how you like it, peal off the stickers and rinse in cold water. The more you wait, the more the bleach will take effect on your shirt. 

Step Seven. Wash in the washer like normal but with COLD water. Dry like you normally would and enjoy your new shirt!!