The Hasty Bleach Pen Experiment

One thing about Hasty Crafts is that I need to be able to complete them, well, hastily! With an infant around the house, I don't have long stretches of time to focus on making things. As it was, Drools-in-Happiness thought this craft wasn't hasty enough. It was an experiment and I didn't know how long I'd have to let the bleach set.

You know that freezer paper stencil craze that's buzzing around craftdom? It sounds pretty cool, but I thought it was even cooler when someone tried it with bleach. My conniving little brain thought that a bleach pen would expedite the process. It did, but I sacrificed clarity for haste.

Here you see some of my favorite pants. They're made of a light chambray, perfect for summer, but somehow they acquired a mystery stain right in the lap area. Tragic.

(Drools-in-Happiness claims total innocence. I believe him. For the moment.)

So I went to my stencil stash (What? You don't have a stencil stash?) and found some butterflies of appropriate size to create a relative trompe l'oeil in the area of the stain.


I had tried the experiment first on a pink shirt that I wasn't all that fond of and had managed to spill honey mustard dressing on. It was a rather strategically placed spill, and just bleaching the area would have been . . . eyecatching. The stencil worked out well. And it makes me hate "Charity Pink"--the advertised color of this shirt--a little less.


After I got the bleach gel on, I let it sit until there was a distinct change in color. Blotted off the excess with a towel, threw them in the washer in their own load (I don't need to be practicing my Hasty Craftiness on my entire wardrobe, thank you), then dried them in the dryer.

I *think* I like the soft edges to the stenciling--I'm a casual gal and my clothes tend to reflect that. However, I do wish I'd let the bleach sit longer on the pants for a greater color contrast--repenting at leisure again. But I'm going to have to wear the pants a few times and see what I think before I act on that thought.

The craft was a success, though. Enthusiasm wants me to repeat the Celtic knot stencil on one of her little shirts. No problem! Drools-in-Happiness is fairly certain that only doing ONE stencil meets Hasty Craft time requirements. I'll post an update when I do it, as she's chosen a dark blue shirt and I want to get this timing figured out.