DIY Bleached T Shirts and Paper Towel Roll Stencil

Bleached Tshirt with paper towel roll stencil.

Author:: Nicole Marie
Updated:: Nov 16, 2018
Original:: Jun 6, 2012

I’ve been spending WAY too much time on Pintrest but I can’t help it. I have soooo many pins and projects to try out and this one I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I had a bleach pen and plain t-shirt but I didn’t know what design to do. Then I thought of all the paper towel rolls I’ve been saving up (yes, for another project!) and figured I would use them to make a cool stencil. It turned out awesome!

I started out with this plain Tee and put some cardboard inside to keep the bleach from going through and to make it easier to draw on. Then I held it in place with clothes pins.

I grabbed my handy bleach pen and a couple little pieces of cut up paper towel rolls that I have been saving from my snowflake project. Some pieces were individually cut and I also had this little flower shape already glued together. If you’re making a stencil, make sure that all your cut pieces are the same width. If not, when you put it together some areas will be higher or lower than others and your pattern will be inconsistent.

Then I just traced the bleach pen on the stencil and stamped onto the shirt. I chose to do the side of the shirt. It was easier to follow the seam to make it straight and I like the way it shows from the front and the back.

I also freehanded a little bit of leaves and dots. My artistic abilites are not that great so the stencils made it easier for me 🙂 I took my bleach pen and went over any areas that didn’t have enough bleach to ensure that the color turned out pretty consistent throughout the design.

I let it sit for about 15 minutes because the color wasn’t pulling out as fast. It’s amazing how fast fabric bleaches when it’s accidentally splashed on your favorite top or pants! Well, when I got the color I was happy with I just washed and dried it and TADA…a one of a kind top for me to wear this summer.