I decided to try something different when screen printing shirts… bleaching. I’ve been seeing this done for awhile now, but haven’t tried it because I didn’t want to ruin “good tees”. But in a moment of procrastination I decided to take the plunge and see what happened:

As far as “process goes”, I used a mix of 50-50 bleach and water in a spray bottle, applied it to the shirt, and stopped it from bleaching with some hydrogen peroxide (so that you don’t wind up over-dying or creating holes). My first attempt was the “Freedom Rocks” tee – I got a little too happy with spraying and I feel like the bleached area is too large. I also didn’t put a barrier between the front and back of the shirt while bleaching and I wasn’t really thrilled with how the back looks.
I went with the yellow shirt next – again I bleached a little too much, but it was definitely more controlled and looked better overall. I also put a barrier barrier between the front and back so the bleach didn’t show through. By the time I got to the 3rd tee (the green Siren), I finally figured out how to achieve the look I was after. So, of course, for the next shirt I had to change it up. My last two shirts (both black) I tried “scrunching” my tee before bleaching (so it has more of a tie dyed look)… what I found most interesting is my results. The all cotton tee had some peachy undertones, while the blend tee (52% cotton 48% polyester) faded gray with some rust undertones. Overall it’s a cool effect – in fact, Easton like his so much that he decided to keep it plain!