How To Make Bleach Stenciled Custom T-Shirts

okay so I want to show you something
this is the process I've been developing
here for the last last couple months for
making bleached custom t-shirts that look
pretty good each one is is different and
unique and right now Bethany who's
running the camera right now and I have
been working on these for a podcast that
we produce it's called here be monsters
it's about fear and the unknown and
we've been making these t-shirts because
as opposed to like a traditional
silkscreen or a digital transferred
shirt we want something that was varied
and unique and just a little bit
different than then the traditional
shirt making method so we have here is
we have a couple of these have been
working on earlier here today and I want
to show you the exact process that we're
going through so that you can generate
the same kind of shirts with your own
pattern on them for your own use because
they look pretty good this is one that I
that we made earlier these are just
drying landing the bleach soaked in all
the way but this is kind of what you can
expect results that are different for
each one but but still look quite sharp
and quite precise these are just some of
the ones that we have done earlier today
yeah that's our logo so I want show you
the full process here
you don't need very much you don't need
anything like really expensive or
specialized you just need a couple of
tools and a trip to the hardware store
to dispense routes were using right now
these are Gildan gilding 5050 poly
cotton blends and that's important
because you want shirts that are 100%
cotton otherwise the bleach will
eventually dissolve through and eat all
of the fabric the way the 50-50 cotton
polyblend
the bleach can react with the cotton and
it won't react with the polyester thus
leaving the structural integrity intact
you can see oh you can see here earlier
Bethany went through and put a little
tiny red sticker so we can register the
shirts and make sure that we know
exactly where we want the top of the
stenciled ahead another thing you'll
need is you'll need to steal a sign from
your old employer um this is really good
on some metal sign it's exact right
sighs my employer was remodeling so I
took this sign and I wrapped a little
bit of tape around the edge so it's
easier to slide into the shirt
so what you do is you take this this is
a large shirt these these just run maybe
got over these dents seems like a buck
or two each here's something like that
you're cheap and they're good shirts too
I really like these so I slide this in
here I've got this up here at the top
and this is to prevent the bleach when
we when we put it on from soaking
through to the back and bleaching the
back of the shirt as well this is a very
important part of this and a mistake
that I was making a lot in my earlier
attempts of doing this okay let's go
over to the bleaching station that's
another really important thing that you
get the temperature of your space right
and so it's January right now it's
January in Seattle so it doesn't really
count so it's not real winter but this
little space here that we have in here
to make sure that the temperature is up
in the space so that the bleach can
react properly bleach reacts quicker it
at higher temperatures and when you do
this in space it's like 40 degrees per
set your bleach is going to react very
slowly and not as completely okay so a
couple other things I have over here
this is a press that I made especially
for this purpose it's two pieces of wood
with a window cut in the front and
here's our gleech stencil that's using
an overhead sheet and these things are
great because they're durable they're
cheap then you can cut them with an
exacto knife you know it looks good and
and so you have a hole cut in here and
then taped up really good on the
backside through this window um this is
really important so the bleach doesn't
seep through another thing that you
might not notice here is that the front
of this is all be encoded with a
polyurethane varnish and that's optional
but it will make the pressing more
durable because it will make the bleach
roll off of it instead of soaked into
the wood that's great you can use
polyurethane varnish or you can use like
a cheap lacquer that you would find in a
spray can either one works fine tape up
here so that that the so that the bleach
when it rolls off of the stencil doesn't
go underneath the stencil which is
another problem we're having earlier got
a couple clamps here you'll see what
these are for I got these for a dollar
at the hardware store another thing
that's important to have especially if
you're doing this by yourself is a
bucket of cold water so you can wash
your hands in between parts that are
bleach sensitive and part
that are not bleep sensitive and you'll
see what I mean in just a moment also a
bunch of rags are really important last
two things that you need as far as
equipment goes is you need some sort of
spray adhesive and it's important not to
buy the extra strength spray adhesive
these you want a very weak adhesion and
you'll see why in just a minute and also
a spray bottle you can use any spray
bottle but normal ones that you recycle
from like just like a general-purpose
cleaner or a simple green or whatnot
aren't going to be very strong and so
they'll actually degrade into the bleach
potentially and so you can get these
chemically resistant spray bottles and
they're kind of expensive but they're
probably worth the investment if you're
making a lot of these shirts which we
are right now okay so I've got the
bleach I got the spray adhesive and I've
got the shirt in beside its sign in the
shirt and the next step is just laying
it down here and getting it centered on
the press so right now my hands do not
have bleach on them oh it's something
else you really need is you need clothes
that you don't care about which is what
I'm wearing right now all right so this
is probably the hardest step actually is
getting this thing lined up just
perfectly that's why the red dot is so
important because with the overhead
sheet you can see exactly where the red
dot is and you can guess and check all
right who's this alright great the next
step
spray just a tiny bit of spray adhesive
on there this is important I was always
using too much at first that's plenty
and then I'm gonna fold this up so that
I have room for this what you can see
here is these are work called carriage
bolts you give these at any hardware
store they're great and it's what I also
have using to hold the hinge on here
which is just a nylon strap and so we've
got that you can fold the sleeves in
we're gonna try this alright it's just
about right if I want a little bit
higher on here that's if you could come
up here on top and to show how the dot
lines up I've been doing this I have a
spot that I know where I want to dot to
line up on great that's perfect right up
there in between the h and the B now I'm
gonna do down here I'm gonna fit these
carriage bolts into these pre-made holes
there we go snap in I've got two clamps
put them on the side this goes a lot
faster with two people but you can do
with one okay here's the first step it's
kind of difficult is you got to get this
stuck on here just right so you got to
go around it's okay if you get a little
bit of bleach on there because it's
gonna be bleached in a minute anyway
this is obviously going to vary per your
design but for me the problem areas
right here are the legs of the M these
little spikes on the bottom and then
this spot right in here on the bottom of
the H all right there we got this I'm
gonna put it out now so please diluted
bleach for this process but I'm using
full strength bleach because I want to
be a very bright effect if you want less
brightness you will use you'll water it
down just a little bit but I'm using
full strength bleach and just a little
tiny bit of it I do one spray to you
turned out to break a spray bottle again
I've been doing this all that the police
will start reacting immediately yeah
already around yeah
and I'm gonna take this back down again
and wipe off the excess bleach wipe it
off with a stencil this is important
because when you lift it up the bleach
might run off and get into your dry zone
and so that's something that's really
important is that you have very specific
places that the bleach will never touch
which is you never want on the inside of
the press otherwise you'll wind up with
some weird stains on your shirt right
now I'm gonna dump because I'm doing
this by myself I'm gonna dunk my hands
in the water get any excess bleach off
put some rags over here use some of the
failed shirts over here that I'm drying
my hands with and take off the clamps
this is where it's nice to have a
partners at this stage because we have
to so you have to very carefully peel
the shirt off
I run my hand back there very carefully
pull this off and you can pull it off
immediately the bleach will not spread
once it's on there as long as you're
very careful at this stage okay then the
only other thing you need at this point
is you need sheet of paper or sheet of
cardboard that you can flip in here to
prevent to act as the sign essentially
but while the shirt is drying so I've
got this right under the wet spot here
then just lift it up
so obviously you can go faster than this
if you're not explaining everything
maybe I'll do one more here it more like
a full speed let you down to keep yeah
let's grab another one you get the sign
here we can just do this a little bit
faster I'm showing the very designs
that's great son looks pretty cool yeah
okay but how long do you think it's been
taken for them to get to their phone the
dryer will continue the process for what
like 20 minutes 20-ish minutes yeah
we've been having pretty good luck with
them drying here yeah and so we'll
continue to get brighter and brighter
and brighter until they hit cold water
and you definitely want to wash these in
cold water because again the bleach will
react at higher higher temperatures so
the colder the water the better when you
wash to keep from bleeding that being
said once it goes through the wash
there's no potential that it's going to
bleed out onto your other clothes
because as soon as the bleach crystals
are gone they're gone and you have a
permanent design that won't ever fade
which is great okay
so gonna do this one a little bit
quicker you'll line this up here at the
top I'm gonna try and get this eyeball
this as good as possible but usually you
do have to readjust it once or twice and
great depth at easy on the adhesive
that's the that's the crucial part
great of course this is not an exact
science
I'm gonna give these lined up in here
also not an exact science there we go
clamps the under egg important to get
this right on here so that's why you
want to use adhesive just to get it
flush as you can so it doesn't bleed it
off there we go
two squirts from about a foot away do
you do too little your bleach won't take
and if you do too much and will um it
will start to seep in the fabric it will
start to bleed around the edges just by
our what's that called capillary action
so that is they'll start to diffuse and
make your make your design less sharp
which is another reason for using full
strength bleach so you don't have to use
as much liquid all right oh another
really important thing is use chlorine
bleach don't use non-chlorine bleach I
don't I don't think that actually has
any effect on the color of clothing at
least not from my experiment
all right and again you don't have to
let this sit in here you can take it out
right away
important if you're doing this by
yourself to rinse your hands off between
each one in case you guys leach on that
dry them off real good all right you
lift this up carefully
and this one looks very different from
the last one oh you can see I did did
have a little wrinkle in the fabric
there but sometimes it simply kind of
neat the variants are what make this
process work and I think because as Beth
can attest to this is a pain in the ass
cherries sticks forever but a pain of
love liebherr of love these are babies
little podcaster babies each one a
unique snowflake yeah I think the big
galaxies I think they kind of look like
fireworks
you know sparklers if you think this
process is neat
you should check out our podcast it's
called here be monsters it's about fear
and unknown the episode that we put out
today January 6 2015 is about a psychic
trip to the psychics they went a little
bit awry yeah our podcasts at HB on
podcast comm this has been a little
quick tutorial on how to make a little
bleach t-shirt Oh before we let the good
people go down so let's take a look at
that one that we just did see how it's
developed you remember where I put that
over here if you have any questions
about this process I'm more than happy
to answer these questions anything you
anything you may have questions about on
this process I've wrecked a lot of
t-shirts trying to figure out how to do
this and so willing to try and help you
help you out in this process to just
write them in the comments and all I'll
try to address them here all right I
think that's the whole thing
thanks dance