{DIY: Bleached Tribal Shorts}

              

Hey Bloggers!
Lately, I have been extremely productive! I have finally started making my YouTube videos (check 'em out at http://www.youtube.com/user/mckennakiam?feature=results_main), constantly starting new DIY projects, and blogging everyday!

 It must be the nice weather, lazy summer days, and the smell of suntan lotion! :)

On top of finishing my tea-dyed skirt, I made these fabulous shorts after seeing a similar photo on Pinterest. I've been really obsessed with the tribal print trend for summer, and I thought it was time to add some to my summer closet!

They're bleached, Sharpie-d, and frayed. And I am absolutely IN LOVE.

I explained how I made down below. :)

The jean shorts I actually began with were a pair of A.N.A. jeans my mom picked up at a yard sale one summer, but they were soon handed down to me to work my magic. :)

I made them into a pair of cut-offs, frayed the edges, and added a couple of decorative stitches. I actually wore them a lot at the beginning of the summer, but after I saw a picture of these types of shorts, I knew exactly which ones I was going to use.

I started by bleaching them almost all the way up. I soaked them in a half-bleach-half-cold-water  mixture for about two hours. This may seem like a ton of bleach, but in order to get them completely white, you need that much!

After they were completely white (the longer you keep them in the mixture, the less blue-jean they're going to look), I picked them out while wearing ugly rubber gloves and rung them out to get most of the bleach solution out.

On most websites who show this DIY, they state that if you let the shorts air dry they bleach smell will go with the dampness. However after about 24 hours of drying, the shorts still reeked of bleach, so I threw them into the washer and dried them after.

Last but not least, I added a cute tribal pattern with a black Sharpie; I looked at many different tribal patterns until I just decided to wing it :) and I love the turn out! After I was done with the Sharpie pattern, I ironed them to ensure the ink would solidify into the material. However, you can apply almost any type of heat to the material, such as the dryer or direct sunlight, and it will work just the same. :)

Enjoy my DIY Goddesses! <3

see ya tomorrow,

mckenna k. xx

Tea Dyeing Success!

Hey bloggers!

If you have been following my tweets lately (username: McKennaK1) you will have seen my many attempts, trials, and failures at tea dyeing one of my white skirts.

After hours of soaking, rinsing, drying and starting over, I finally achieved the exact tea-colored skirt I had been hoping for. :) I wanted it to fade from white to a light brown in a ombre fashion, and I think I succeeded.

I am going to share my process with you below. :)



 Photo info:

*Rings off & tea bags ready to go! :)

*The original whiteness of my skirt

*The tea I used to get the color I wanted

I began by testing out different teas in white cups to see how dark the water would become in the dyeing process. I ended up choosing the one above, because it wasn't too light or dark, it was kind of in the middle.

Then, I soaked my skirt in a salt fixative, which is only boiling water and about a cup of salt dissolved in the water. This will allow the dye to adhere well to the fabric and to make sure whether there are any "dry pockets" where the tea will not get in the dyeing process.

I then put in six tea bags and let them boil for about 20 minutes before letting the water simmer. 

I then submerged the entire skirt in the dye mixture for 20 minutes; I only did 20 minutes because I wanted the skirt to be fairly light, but the longer the material soaks in the tea mixture, the dark it will get.

 After the timer went off, I took the skirt into the sink and rinsed it completely until the water running off of it was clear. Next, I rung it out until it was barely damp. I then set up sort of a prop to hold up the skirt while I did the next layer (for the next layer, I kept about 4 inches out of the water).

I repeated the previous steps about 4 times, until I had reached the last four inches of the skirt.

And ABRACADABRA!
The tea-dyed ombre skirt was born!

Feel free to try this as well, and if you find out other ways to naturally dye fabrics, make sure to share them with me! :)

details:

skirt (original white color) // Gap

top (actually my favorite romper tucked in) // Target

see ya tomorrow.

mckenna k. xx