Honestly…WTF is such a rad site.

Any fashion-y/craft-y lady is well aware of their incredible DIY’s, and if you’ve got the balls you should definitely try one (or a couple) out. They make it look so easy. And some of it is! But then, some of it’s not : (

This is the story of a legit and ambitious attempt in doing their DIY Bleach Tie Dye.

While Michel was away in Hong Kong for 10 days, I crafted my ass off. The process of this DIY was a disaster, but the end result turned out actually ok!  Like I said before – since he was away, there are crucial photos missing from this post…as you read on you will know why.  On to the story!

I Attempt to Bleach Tie Dye DIY…and wtf happened…

I had this crappy old H&M black blaze that had been chilling in my closet for probably a year or two. I couldn’t give it up because, duh, it’s a black blazer and you can never have too many, but I never wore it because it was faded and worn and I own much nicer black blazers. The moment I saw their DIY Bleach Tie Dye, my mind instantly went to this blazer…

*I feel that I must write a huge disclaimer about what transpired during this DIY process…*

First, I’m not totally always the best at following directions – this has been a major hurdle in my culinary life and it has now infiltrated my crafting life.  

Follow directions folks, it’s not hard even when it seems soooo hard and lame!! Second, I didn’t fully know/plan out how this would go down. I know that yes, bleach is a chemical so this should be done outside. I knew that I had a hose attched to the outside of my building – which I should have tested first (rookie mistake #1).

Ok? Moving on!

 So I gathered my materials….

• My 100% cotton H&M black blazer
• Bleach
• A bucket
•  A pair of gloves  (major rookie mistake #2)
• Rubber bands
• 2 flat shaped objects used for binding (I used two sides of an unfinished frame)

…and I headed outside!

In the tutorial they have the shirt, I repeat, a shirt – not a blazer – folded accordion style.

This was a challenge as this blazer is far more bulky than some slinky American Apparel long sleeved shirt. But I did it anyways! Albeit difficult and annoying. I had this vision of the horizontal tie dye stripes in my mind and DAMNIT I WAS GOING TO MAKE IT WORK.

According to the DIY tutorial, after you fold your material, you put it in between two “binding objects”  and wrap rubber bands around it.

THANK GOD I had the foresight to actually check the level of my bucket with how high this contraption would go. Considering the “small” amount of bleach and water, I decided that the sticks would impare the correct amount of submersion that was needed to cover the blazer. So it carefully removed the sticks, keeping the blazer in place in a nice bundle. I also added more rubber bands. You can never have too many rubber bands.

The above paragraph just shows how well I do NOT follow directions. Taking the sticks out greatly altered the look of the final product and I would not recommend it. If you look at Honestly…WTF’s photos, they tilt the bucket so that the bleach covers the fabric with ease. Being my self, this is literally something I’m just now noticing as I go back to reference their post. No lie.  Anyyyywayyyy…..

 

At this point in the process I have no photos because shit got real.

I submerged the jacket into the bucket of bleach and waited about 10 seconds for it to turn the rusted color that Honestly…WTF advises you to do. It did so. VERY quickly.

My friend-neighbor, Anna, was in the yard with her dog (essentially watching me fail) and when it was time to wash out the blazer, she looked at my pitifully as I frantically tried to turn on the hose….   No water came out of the hose.

I stood there, bleach-covered hands burning, we’re both panicking as I’m like, WHAT DO I DO!?! There is bleach everywhere. All down my shoes, my sweatshirt – Anna yells back “YOU NEED TO GO INSIDE AND WASH YOUR HANDS!! RISNE IT OUT!!”

Duh.

I grab the bucket of bleach as Anna opens the door and I rush into my apartment building, then in my home, trying  my hardest not to get bleach everywhere (I am). I dump the bucket of the bleach mixture in the bathtub and turn the water on as a wave of chemical smell washes over me and I’m rinsing the jacket out under the fresh faucet water.

Once all the bucket bleach was down the drain I could take off the millions of rubber bands wrapped around it and give it a proper rinse. The jacket didn’t look the way I had envisioned, but at this point I was actively trying not to die of the fumes colleting in my bathroom so I didn’t care. I let the jacket rinse as I jumped in and out of the bathroom gasping for clean air – which all seemed to be infected with bleach.

Finally, the air quality seemed less terrible (or maybe, I was just used to inhaling bleach : / ) so I go see my creation. At first glance, it’s meh. No horizontal tie dye stripes at all. The entire jacket had changed into this rust/light yellow color with one sleeve having a bit of what was before. I liked the back immediately because it has a little tramp stamp placed Rorschach test symbol. I toss it in the washer and dryer, by itself of course, and…..

in the end, it looks like this!

Once the bleach fumes left my brain, I really liked it a lot!

I wore it to work and I actually got a lot of compliments, which was like, probably one of the biggest internal “Yay!”s I’ve felt in a long time.

While this wasn’t as easy as I had expected (mostly due to my own issue of not following directions), I had such a great outcome with this project that I highly recommend it!

There are a few things I would suggest if you try to rock this our yourself:

1. Follow the directions, but especially follow them when dealing with chemicals!
2. Use thinner fabrics - a thick blazer was probably not the best choice…
3. Aside from a bucket of bleach, definitely make sure you have a working hose or a bucket of water around too. The bleach works *fast* so you need to rinse it out right away.
4. Wash and dry your fabric post-bleaching at least twice. I washed mine once, as the directions advise, but it still reeked of bleach.

All in all,  I do think I will try it again. Fully following directions, of course.

Good luck with your own!

*RADMAGICLOVE*