Have you bought clothes during quarantine and still haven’t gotten to wear them anywhere (besides maybe the grocery store)? You aren’t alone. Most of us thought we’d only experience this major life change for a few weeks, but now that spring and summer have both passed us, it looks like we’re going to have to take a rain check on those outfits.

A fun and less expensive way to get new clothes during these strange times is by making them yourself. You don’t have to be a stylist or even artistic, just be open to getting a little messy and having fun. First step is finding the clothes you want to bleach tie dye. Your local thrift store, Target and Walmart are all great choices to shop at. Then you’ll need 4 easy items: bleach, a spray bottle, rubber bands and gloves. Once you’ve got those items, it’s time to watch some YouTube videos to figure out the style you want.

After watching a bunch of YouTube videos, I felt like a bleach tie dye expert. I knew the styles that I liked so it was all about putting my skills to the test!

First up: I did the “scrunch up” method on this dope MJ T-shirt I got at GoodWill for only $2.99 and it came out perfectly!

Second shirt: I freestyled on the “Nah” t-shirt (also a GoodWill find) and scrunched it up/rolled it up without any rubber bands.

Third shirt: I used the most common bleach tie dye style on yet another GoodWill find by twisting it in the middle and adding three rubber bands to secure it.

Last but not least: I freestyled on this pullover ($15 at Walmart) with a splatter paint style in mind. I soaked the bottom, sleeves and neck with bleach and then sprayed from a distance all on the front and back for the splatter effect.

I did all of these outside by a river down the street from my house. It was so nice to do this fun craft outside and also not having to worrying about bleaching anything in my house. After letting all the shirts sit for 20ish minutes, I put them in plastic bags and brought them home to wash. All you have to do is thoroughly rinse the bleach out the shirts, run them through the washer and your beautiful masterpieces are safe to wear!

Leave a comment if you’re going to try to bleach tie dye some clothes! :)