Make a Lovely Bleach Dye T-Shirt With a Leaf Pattern

Tools and materials:

• Old shirt
• Spray bottle
• Bleach
• Newspapers
• Leaf

Choose a shirt

As you can see, I will be using this faded pink shirt. It has a couple of oil stains and really could do with a transformation. Once this project is done, you won't even see them. Go ahead and choose your own shirt that could do with some sprucing up.

Gather your materials

The materials I'll be using are a bunch of beautiful leaves that I handpicked. I added some bleach to my spray bottle and laid out some newspaper. I handpicked a bunch of leaves. I chose one that I thought would look great for my shirt. It's also a flat leaf, so it will lay flat on the surface of the shirt.

Create your own design

I am using a sharp kitchen knife to cut through the leaf. I make some holes so that the bleach seeps through. Basically, I am adding more design and depth by cutting inside the leaf along the vines.

Spray the bleach

Here's the best part! It's time to spray the bleach. Using your handy spray bottle, spritz the bleach around the leaf and between the holes you just cut. Add a few spritzes around the leaf's whole outskirts so it will look like a gradient-like effect.

Let it sit for 20 minutes and modify

When you're done, let the shirt sit for 20 minutes before you take off the leaf. Next, take off the leaf and look at your beautiful creation!

My leaf's outline looked great, but I wanted to create more dimension and really get between each segment. So I added a few of the leaf pieces on the shirt and sprayed more bleach so that each segment had a visible outline and more definition.

Here it is- the beautiful outcome. Nothing like mother nature's design, right? I love the pop of white against the mauve color of the T-shirt. I love the entire look, and I can't wait to wear this out. I hope you enjoy this tutorial as much as I did.