Bleach pen shirt for the cotton anniversary

This is another t shirt craft that I made with a ruined shirt.  Somehow it managed to get some bleach speckles on it - nothing huge mind you, but ugly nonetheless.  Hubs wears these as undershirts anyway, so it stayed in rotation for a good long time, but I finally got tired of seeing him wear it NOT as an undershirt and cringing at the orangey-brown bleach marks.  So I on-purpose bleached the heck out of it!  Stylishly of course...

Stupid bleach spots... I'm gonna cover you!

I made this do double duty as an anniversary gift for Hubs.  I am trying to do a handmade gift every year that corresponds with the traditional list of anniversary gifts (year one is paper, year two is cotton, year three is... well we haven't gotten to 3 years so I don't know yet haha).  Last year I made him a photo book on Blurb.com that was a fairytale starting with how and where we met all the way through our son's birth and so on.  It spanned about 6 years, so there were lots of great pictures and it was both sweet and funny.  This year, I took his shirt and wrote the lyrics to "Lucky" by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat.  Bleach pen shirts are all over the interwebz, so I wont go over board on the instructions, but I will share some of my experience with you.

You will need:
a Clorox bleach pen (don't get the color safe one!)
a dark colored t-shirt, preferably a ruined one :-)
several pieces of cardboard that fit in the sleeves and across the whole center of the shirt
latex/rubber gloves
a printed out sheet of your lyrics, poem, whatever
a large work area (I used my floor, but the kitchen table would have been easier)
A full bottle of hydrogen peroxide
A sink or tub for rinsing
a load of whites in the washing machine

Step 1: Arrange your cardboard inside your shirt under the area you want to write on first.  Make sure you slip it between the front and back unless you want bleach bleed through.  I guess that is a look if you want to go for it, but the bleach will soak through unevenly, so beware.  Figure out how you want your writing to look.  If you want, start below the collar to write straight, or you can write on a diagonal across the whole shirt, or you can do a spiral or something else cool - use your imagination.  The song I liked has an interlude by both singers, so I wrote one on each side of the collar then the chorus started across the whole middle.

Step 2: Put on your gloves and begin writing.  Use the narrow tip end of the bleach pen and GENTLY squeeze as you write.  To get it started you may want to dab at a piece of scrap something to get the tip of the pen wet with bleach gel.  You don't need a lot of bleach to make it work, and the less you get out the less it will run and get "blobby" so a thin layer is best.  Just make sure it looks a little wet.  Don't worry overmuch about your penmanship as it will look cool and stylized and nothing like your actual writing, but do leave a little extra space between letters so they don't run together.  Mine is only barely legible, but I like it that way.  Make your letters as big as you want to fit your words well in the pattern you have chosen.  I did a mix of cursive and all caps to lend emphasis and style.  If you want, you can write in chalk first and then trace your letters with the bleach, but I am not that patient, so I went for the big time right away.

Step 3: Write fast.  No, seriously.  You can really damage your shirt if you go too slowly because just like when you get highlights, the bleach is blowing out proteins in the fiber of the shirt which removes the color, but can create holes if you leave it too long.  As you move down the shirt you can skooch the cardboard down with you if you don't have a piece big enough to cover the whole thing, so you aren't bleeding through.  You run less risk of bleed through once you are done writing on the section unless you have saturated the fibers with bleach, which I already told you not to... just sayin.

Step 4: If you are concerned about taking too long to do the whole shirt, take the shirt to the sink and wash out the excess bleach.  Leaving your gloves on, run some water over the shirt and quickly rub out the bleach under the stream.  Work from the top to bottom (or from the words you wrote first to the ones you wrote last).  If you work reasonably quickly and rinse well you wont bleach out the background by rubbing the gel over it.  Squeeze out the excess water.  Pour a little hydrogen peroxide over the lettering until the shirt is saturated, let it sit for a minute or so, then rinse it out.  This will counteract the action of the bleach so you don't continue the chemical reaction blah blah blah.  I used vinegar for mine, but apparently that is super dangerous as the leftover bleach and vinegar can create an INCREDIBLY dangerous gas, so don't do that.  I read up on it since and supposedly peroxide is much safer.  I'm no chemist, so if you injure yourself, please don't sue.  I'm just doin my best here folks :-)  I think I rinsed mine well enough to not run any risk of the chemical reaction, but please be safe.  The gas is so dangerous we are talking one good whiff and you are DEAD.  Double Plus Ungood.

The downside to all this is that you will want to let your shirt at least mostly dry out if not totally before you go back to working on it.  Remember how impatient I am?  But the upside is that you will end up with a much more consistent text color rather than having super light at the top and super dark at the bottom, and the top will be less likely to develop holes over time as you wear the garment.  Again, that whole less damage to the fibers thing.

Step 5: When you are totally done, rinse out the bleach as described in step 4, peroxide it and let it soak for a few, then rinse thoroughly.  Toss in the washer with whites that can handle the bleach (no silk undies) or in an empty washer but shame on you for wasting water, and run a full cycle on hot with two rinses.  I added vinegar to my fabric softener container so it would rinse with vinegar and stop that chemical reaction some more, but again, its up to you to determine the safety factors.  Dry as usual.  For the next few washes you may want to avoid washing with darks that may be damaged by bleach, but by this point with all the chemical neutralizing we have done, you are probably pretty safe.

Bottom Line:
shirt: free for me, but a new one runs maybe $5
peroxide: $1 from the dollar store, maybe less.
Bleach pen: about $3

Total - for me, $3.  Not bad for an anniversary gift!
If you have to buy everything, $9 (depending on how much writing you do, you may have enough bleach pen to do more shirts, too!)

Time: with no stops for rinsing, about 30 minutes plus washing and drying.  With stops for rinsing, about 2:30, maybe more if its a humid day.

I plan to play with this for more shirts that have been ruined by stains, bleach, etc, to give them a cool new life.  I also want to try the spray bottle bleach with a stencil method as that seems like it would go faster and has different options for graphics and large images.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and the hubs says he will totally wear it, so hooray!  Happy anniversary baby!

Wazoodle

I like great companies. I love small businesses. I feel good about buying US made. I like crafting supplies. I seek out good prices. I demand good customer service. I am impressed by sincerity.

Dear reader, this may not interest you in the least, but I felt obligated to tell you about the new and improved wazoodle. It's a website that sells cloth diapering and other supplies to the general public. Let me take a moment to disclaim: I don't work for them I get no money from them and I get no stuff from them unless I pay for it. Which I do. And will continue to.

Anyway, if you are into making your own cloth diapers or accessories, you may have heard of them. They used to be a Canadian based company, but after scathing reviews because of poor customer service and slower than slow shipping, they went up for sale. It is now run out if New Jersey and the new owners seem so awesome! They have scads of new products, all made by the same factories to keep the product quality high (that was the one good thing about the old wazoodle), but such a better attitude. The prices are great, shipping is much more affordable, and I don't have to feel guilty buying from a foreign company (business? In NJ. Products? Manufactured in the states. Yay!)

I get my PUL there, barrel stoppers, drawstring cord, and various other items. They have a great selection of organic fabric, including tons of bamboo.  It is a great resource for natural diapering options, especially.  Looks like they are carrying KAM plastic snaps and presses, too. I used KAMsnaps.com for that, but who knows?! I may switch! Anyway, this may not affect you at all, but I felt moved to shout to the world that a crappy supplier of great products is now a customer friendly, US company. They deserve a second chance. My newest order is placed. Hooray!

Chalkboard wine glasses

This is my first post on a Christmas gift project idea for the year.  I am okay with posting this one because it is for a family member, not a friend.  You see, my family DOESN'T read my blog ;-)

My dad and his wife love hosting parties and they love wine, as does much of my family.  However, they always have the problem of who set their glass where, and am I drinking someone else's wine?  There have been many solutions to this problem, like wine glass charms, different glass styles, and the like, but when you are at a particularly GOOD party, and are half in the bag, its hard to remember if you were blue or green or if yours had that funny flourish thingy on the stem.  One thing you are unlikely to forget is your name, regardless of how drunk you are.  You get that at keggers with those little red cups and a sharpie, but that doesn't translate well to the world of wine.  I needed a real wine glass that was writable, preferably rewritable, and elegant.

So I set about making some glasses with chalkboard paint on them.  I was kind of unconvinced that it would come out well, but I figured with some goodwill glasses and the multi-surface paint I already had, it was worth a shot.  They came out pretty well!

I will say that I don't think the chalkboard paint will last forever, but I can totally scrape it off and reapply.  It wasn't a terribly labor intensive process, so I wouldn't mind spiffing them up every now and again.  I wouldn't recommend washing them in the dishwasher or leaving them to soak, but a gentle hand washing and drying seems like it wouldn't be a problem.

Supplies needed:
all surface or glass Chalkboard paint (I used Martha Stewart paint, available at Michael's)
paint brush
Wine glasses - go to the dollar store or goodwill and save yourself some money!
Xacto knife
contact paper (the kind you use to line shelves)
a nice pretty template (I used 2 for fun, found here and here)

Step 1:
Find your template and print it out.  Cut it out and use the inside piece to trace onto the contact paper as many times as needed for the number of glasses you are making. Make sure to leave enough space between tracings for a good solid border.  You will need at least half an inch (preferably more) around each template to mask off the glass.  Cut them out into individually rectangles.

Step 2:
Carefully cut out the middle of each template using your exacto knife.  Gently peel off the backing and adhere each one to the glasses, trying to keep the top aligned with the upper edge of the glass.  I found that using four fingers one on each corner, and pulling taut was the best way to keep the shape even.

Step 3:
Carefully apply the paint to the glass.  I used a natural bristle brush because it was what I had, but it royally sucked.  I think a synthetic brush would have worked better.  Mine left awful streaks.  Let it dry thoroughly between coats (at least an hour according to the bottle).  I used 4 coats.  I think a good rule of thumb is holding the glass up to the light with the painted part facing away from you.  When you can no longer see light through the painted part, you have sufficient coverage.

Step 4:
After letting the paint dry thoroughly overnight, its time to peel off the contact paper.  BE CAREFUL!  If you have ever painted anything and left the masking tape on, you know that the paint will peel up just as easily as the masking.  First, take your exacto knife and score around the edge of the shape.  Then, use the edge of the blade to gently push away the contact paper from one edge.  Cut out to the edge of the contact paper, and use that point to start peeling up the masking.

Score around the edge,

Pull away one small section and cut the template to the outside edge.

Then peel off carefully.

Step 5:

There will be some small spots where the paint bled under the masking.  Use the exacto blade to scrape off any excess and clean up the edges (sorry for the REALLY bad photo).  Next, rub chalk over the surface of the painted portion (to prime it and make it easier to write on), smooth it out with your finger, and write something clever.  Voila!  You're finished!

Pretty simple, right?  And at a dollar a glass and about $4 for the paint, its a pretty cheap gift, too!  I will stress, be careful about the scoring and peeling part.  I botched one of the glasses, but I figure its not that big a deal since they wont last forever anyway.  But just to make you feel better in case one of yours don't turn out either, here it is :-)

Crap.  Well, lesson learned.  Be careful. :-)

Taping your presser foot to sew on PUL

I love Pinterest.  It is an amazing way to share and bookmark ideas.  Or I should say, that is what it is at its best.  Its also another way to spam me, annoy me with pointless and meaningless sayings and memes, and waste my time with things that aren't helpful or useful.  But with a little concerted effort, its a great way to share and and find revolutionary ideas.  Well, this may not be exactly revolutionary, but man did it help me out tonight.

A long time ago in a blog post far far away, I made a diaper pail liner using PUL as well as a wet bag.  PUL is difficult to sew on because it is a plastic-y, sticky material.  The presser foot snags on the fabric rather than gliding over it, creating an endless source of problems ranging from puckers in the stitching, missed stitches, bunched stitches, bent and broken needles, messed up timing, and even damage to your machine.  A way to avoid having this problem is to place something between the presser foot and the fabric, such as tissue paper, or even regular old printer paper.  While this really does help, it doesn't completely fix the problem and can open a whole multitude of its own issues, like getting it torn off and all those little bits stuck under the thread out without damaging your stitching, loose stitches because of the extra material being sewn over, and not being able to see the line you are stitching very clearly.

Enter Pinterest.

I saw a pin about a trick for sewing on vinyl and thought I would give it a try with PUL.  My foray into sewing stuff for my son's cloth diapers led me to use Joann's PUL which met with mixed results.  I had to replace some of the items I made after the PUL self destructed, but other items made with a different bolt of fabric is still going strong!  Anyway, This method recommended taking a small piece of scotch tape and taping the bottom of your presser foot to make it slippery.  I was pretty skeptical, but I figured I would do half the new project with paper and compare the experience and the stitching to the tape.  You do have to make a hole for the needle to avoid gunking up your needle and subsequently your machine and make a slit down the middle in the front for the thread to slide through, but it worked pretty darn well!  The presser foot slid nicely over the fabric, with only a fraction of the friction.  WORLDS BETTER than using paper or tissue paper or any other method I have found thus far.

So now we know.  Scotch tape for sewing on sticky fabrics works! Not only do you not have to deal with paper, you can see what you are doing and it leaves your hands free for removing pins, keeping your fabric aligned, and all those other things you do NORMALLY.  Go Pinterest.

Cheap and easy party favors

I have an etsy shop, and one of my most popular items are wedding veils, which I just love to make. However, veils are round and I end up with tons of leftover tulle "corners" that are fairly large bits of fabric, but that I have little to no use for. As a crafty person, throwing it out is tantamount to throwing dollar bills away- except that it has no immediate use... And I have a craft room full of things like that. Bits of ribbon, old bras, torn jeans... You get the idea.

Well every now and again it comes in handy to not throw stuff out, and I finally found a use for all those unused corners of bridal illusion tulle! Of course, you can always just buy a yard for about 2 bucks... Oh and did I mention I didn't use ALL my corners? Darn.

Sorry for the lack of photos. I didn't have the presence of mind to take them while making the stuff and I was too lazy to recreate it... Oh well. You get what you pay for ;) I'd be happy to answer questions if things are unclear.

Materials:
Bridal illusion or other tulle (How much you need depends on how big you want your favors and how many you want)
Ribbon (fabric or curling ribbon is fine, just make sure it's fairly narrow)
Card stock
Printer paper
Scissors
Bulk wildflower seed
Plastic baggies (the fold top sandwich kind) or other barrier to keep seeds inside the tulle
Glue
Hole punch

1) lay out your tulle. Cut into squares about 10x10 inches or as big as you want them. Just eyeball this. No one can tell if they aren't perfect once you tie them up. You can cut circles if you really want, but it is WAY more work and doesn't look any cooler, trust me.
2) fill the 2 bottom corners of the sandwich baggies with seeds. Cut the bag in half, leaving enough on each side to hold the seed. Tape them around the top to hold in the seeds. Trim the excess Baggie off the top.
3) To make tags, cut the cardstock into 2x3 inch rectangles. Cut the paper into 1.5x2.5 inch rectangles. Glue the paper onto the cardstock. Write any sayings you wish on them. Mine were for a baby shower so I put things like "watch our family grow" and "we love our little sprout" on them and on the back wrote "plant me" like the "drink me" from Alice in Wonderland although I don't think the guests caught the reference. Oh well. I tried! Finally, hole punch the tags so you can thread the ribbon through them.
4) Take the tulle squares and place a bag if seeds in the middle. Grab up the sides and tie with the ribbon. I just knotted mine a few times, but you can leave enough to tie a bow if you like. Take a tag and loop it through the ribbon and tie another knot or two or tie your bow. Boom you're done!!

These went really fast and were pretty cheap. The tulle, paper, and ribbon I just had lying around. The seed I bought for about $8 and it made around 30 favors worth. If I shopped around I could have gotten it cheaper but I was too busy to go running around to garden stores so I just a large packet of wildflower and cut flower seeds from Walmart. Still, it comes out to about $.27 per favor.

They are pretty small though, so it's not super dramatic if you are looking for a centerpiece type favor. Although I am sure you could make them larger if you wanted. I initially wanted to make seed bombs, which would be bigger, instead but I didn't have the time to dedicate to it. Maybe next time!!

Pacifier Clips

I recently discovered a cool new craft website for supplies: KAMsnaps.com.  Not only is it an inexpensive site, it offers FREE SHIPPING on orders over $28.  Why $28 and not $25 or $30?  Who knows... but its an easy number to hit once you see how much awesomeness there is!  They also do a %5 back rewards program as well as offer incentives for referring friends (you will all cite me as your referring friend so I get free stuff, right?)  I got snap pliers from them for future diapering ventures as well as the plastic snaps to go with, but I also found pacifier clips.  PLASTIC ONES!  That are specifically designed to be pacifier clips!  And they are really cheap compared to Joann's suspender clips which is what I had been using.  At $0.33 a piece instead of $1.50, it is easier than ever to make affordable stuff for yourself or to sell and still make a profit.  Not to mention plastic, although less durable perhaps, seems like a better material for babies since its not full of sharp edges and they are so much lighter.  They also come in colors, so plain jane silver metal is totally out!  I got the clear ones to test out, but I plan to order more if they work well.
Anywho I made a few for the baby shower and decided to post a tutorial for them, although there are lots of tutes out there for these.

Materials:
Grosgrain ribbon wide enough to just fit through the clip (check this as it varies!!)
Narrower grosgrain ribbon in a coordinating color/pattern
Suspender clips or plastic pacifier clips
Sewing machine and coordinating thread
Pins
Snap pliers/press and snaps OR Velcro dots and a hot glue gun

Step 1) Cut both ribbons to about 8 inches. This will result in a somewhat short paci clip, but it won't pose a strangulation risk to your baby. Bonus :)

Step 2) Lay the narrow ribbon over the top of the fatter ribbon. Pin in place down the middle of the wider ribbon. Stitch across one end to hold the ribbon in place, then stitch down one of the long sides, across the other end, and back up the other long side. Be careful not to shift the ribbons or they will pull and pucker or curl.

across the end

down one side

across the other end

and back up the other side

viola!

Step 3) Snip both raw edges to make the ribbons even. Fold over the raw edge of the ribbon by 1/8"-1/4" and stitch. Fold under again and stitch, encasing the frayed edges. Repeat on the other side so both ends are finished.

Fold over raw edge

stitch

Fold over again

Stitch again.

Step 4) Thread the ribbon through the loop of the clip. Pull it through about half an inch and stitch. Make sure the clip will be right side up before you sew; the top of the clip should touch the right side of the ribbon as you see.

Step 5) Fold over about one inch of ribbon on the other end. Mark where you want your snaps or Velcro to be and apply, staying close to the finished edge on the one side. My photos show me adding snaps, but also show the kind of velcro I used for the first batch, just in case you wanted to try that route.
I used hot glue to affix Velcro to the ones for my son to augment the adhesive that comes on them because I didn't think it would hold up on its own. With daily use, drool, spit up, and chewing, it lasted about 6 months before I replaced it with the more durable plastic snaps. But I could have just re-glued it and been fine or replaced the Velcro. Just FYI...

Once you have the snaps or velcro done, you have a complete Pacifier clip!

Bottom Line:
Ribbon scraps and a roll bought at the dollar spot: $1
Snaps: really cheap once I bought the press and all.  I think its about $5 for 100.
Clips: $0.30
Total cost: less than $1

Total time: about 30 minutes, maybe less.  I made three at a time, so its hard to say how long one would take.
Retail cost: about $4 for one of those munchkin clips that I honestly think are too wide anyway. They always seem to bunch up around the pacifier.
Total savings: $3.  That's enough to make 3 more! :-)