Have you ever tried "reverse tie-dye"? That's when you take a dark-colored t-shirt, scrunch it however you like, and then dunk it in a container full of hot water with chlorine bleach and baking soda in it (and then rinse the living bejeepers out of it after you're finished). You get lighter designs against the dark background. I was doing this for my son when he was roughly in middle school, and I did it on a black t-shirt, expecting grey in the bleached areas. Instead, they were a beautiful medium brown! The effect was really striking.
Yes, it does weaken the fabric, and the shirt will wear out sooner - usually it gets holes or rips where it was bleached. But tie-dyed t-shirts are sort of ephemeral to begin with, especially when they're worn by a kid who may outgrow them before they wear out :-)
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Re: Lady of the Harvest
Date: 2017-07-05 10:44 am (UTC)Yes, it does weaken the fabric, and the shirt will wear out sooner - usually it gets holes or rips where it was bleached. But tie-dyed t-shirts are sort of ephemeral to begin with, especially when they're worn by a kid who may outgrow them before they wear out :-)