A BLEACH Dye Summer

Summer is officially here ladies! And though it pains me to say the above, the fact is, it’s going

to get hot here in the I.E, and what better clothing to wear in summer than shorts or better

yet bleached dyed shorts! And since this is a DIY/Craft column, we are going to make our own

bleached dye shorts!! Now me being the woman I am, a broke one, this project is going to

be cost efficient and most of our materials will be bought at one of my favorite stores, can

you guess? The 99 cent store of course or the Dollar Tree, whatever you prefer. So to get this

project rolling, we first need to buy the materials. So this is what we need from the 99 Cent

Store:

1. Gloves (comes in small, medium, and large)

2. Rubber bands

3. A plastic bin (that can hold a large amount of water)

4. Bleach

The rest of the materials I had in my very own home!!

1. Water

2. And a pair of jeans that I turned into shorts (Now you could buy your shorts at Wal-
Mart or the salvation army, but be sure they are dark denim

Now if you’re like me (a thick thighed girl) your jeans will wear right between your thighs, now

this is where I cut my jeans.

where the wearing is occurring, thankfully for me, my shorts didn’t come out to short, but

HEY IT’S SUMMER!! Cut them bad boys up and get a tan.

If this is your first time bleach dying, don’t worry its easy peasy, but I highly recommend

wearing a shirt or tank that you don’t really care about, because you may spill some bleach!!

Okay ladies let’s get started!!

First we put on our gloves, bleach dries out the skin, but if you’re a get down and gritty type of

person skip the gloves

Than we pour in our water, I used 4 cups of water to 5 1⁄2 cups of bleach. You may use however

much you want, but remember the water has to be at least half to balance out the bleach.
Next is the fun part in my opinion, applying the rubber bands!! Now this part doesn’t have to be

in any specific order, just start wrapping your rubber bands around your shorts, but for those

who would like a guide this is how I wrapped my shorts.

Start wrapping your rubber bands along the inside and outside edges, they will look like little

bubbles of denim. When your satisfied with the number of bands, bunch up your shorts and

wrap more bands around your shorts, they will look like this...

Now it’s time to submerge our shorts!! Your shorts will float so find something heavy to weigh

them down; I used a heart shaped vase, from my wedding (I’m sure my husband won’t mind).

And we will be leaving our shorts in the water and bleach mixture for 30 minutes, plenty of

time to eat and relax or do laundry (which I did not do!!)

After 30 minutes it’s time to take our shorts out, carry your bin to the nearest sink, dumb out

your water and rinse your shorts with warm water, while the water is running begin to unwrap

your rubber bands and see the color change. It’s awesome!!

 Throw those puppies into the washer on warm, let them air dry or machine dry. The last step is

to try them on of course! And send Obsidian Girl a pic of your fabulous DIY bleached dye shorts!

Go on, you know you want too!!

- Jessica Miller