Well howdy hoo little galaxy peeps! I am so excited to share today's post with you one because I love T-Shirts and two because I love tie dye.
Fine. There is a third one, I LOVE THE GALAXY (insert a LOUD yell here). It seems everywhere I go lately there are galaxy shoes, shirts, back packs, tights and undies! Does it take a special person to wear the UNIVERSE on them, hot diggity dog, NO!
Today I will show you how to dye, cut and tie a shirt so let's get started!
This week has been chock full on firsts for me. I bought my very first dress form --> her name is Lola; she was a showgirl. I made my very first galaxy tee. And now I'm sharing my very first ever cut up tee tutorial.
I LOVE cutting up tee shirts. It's amazing how something slouchy and unflattering can become something form fitting and chic. And I know some equate tee shirt makeover with skimpy but that just doesn't have to be the case. Though I tend to wear some off the wall things, I'm pretty conservative in my wardrobe tastes. As I was told very recently, "40 is the new 30 and you're dressing like you're 40, girl." And this shirt is totally made over but even an ultra conservative girl is gonna rock it even with some age appropriate bermuda shorts :)
A couple weeks ago, iLoveToCreate designer Lauri Eaton came walking through the design studio and said, "Check out the shirt I just made!" We immediately dropped our jaws and awed at her cool galaxy creation. She had been seeing a lot of cool galaxy art shirts and shoes online and was inspired to add in some fun tie dye scrunch and spray effects! Today we share this super cool galaxy technique with you to try at home. It's really OUT OF THIS WORLD! Lol.
Before you begin: Wash and dry shirt to remove fabric sizing. Note: Washing out the sizing will better allow the bleach to penetrate shirt fabric for a more intense design.
Cut a piece of your surface cover and fit it inside your shirt so that the bleach won't seep to the back (since it is plastic, it will easily twist with the fabric). Cover work surface with remaining portion of surface cover and lay shirt with plastic inside of surface cover.
Pinch shirt front between thumb and forefinger and twist until entire shirt is in a spiral.
Mix a 50/50 solution of bleach and water in spray bottle. Lightly spray spiraled shirt with bleach solution.
Allow bleach to remain on shirt until desired lightness is achieved. Spray again if desired for more effect. To speed up the process, use a hair dryer to blast hot air onto the bleach.
Bleaching is so cool!
Here's what it looked like when we opened up the shirt.
Wash out the shirt thoroughly until all the bleach is rinsed out. You can also throw the shirt into the washer and run through one complete wash cycle. Leave shirt damp for the next step.
Now mix desired spray dye colors with water and spray the colors onto your bleached design as desired. Place plastic over the shirt and allow to set for 6-8 hours or overnight.
Once finished setting, individually wash and dry shirt according to dye packaging instructions.
Lay shirt out flat on covered work surface and spray lightly with Snow Fabric Spray paint to create "stars". Let dry completely before wearing and wait 72 hours before washing again.
Here's a video showing the entire process!
Don't you just love how it turned out? It's so funky!
Here's a colorful detail!
Here's another shirt we made using a black shirt instead of a navy one! What a cool way to add a colorful nebula look to your galaxy shirt using the dye!
