Zombie Apocalypse Prep - Bleach Stenciling Tutorial

Are you excited for a Zombie Apocalypse? My household is.
We are obsessed with The Walking Dead and other zombie-based books, flicks and shows. My husband and our roommate constantly talk about how awesome they'll be come Z-day.

So, I came up with the idea to make them shirts that broadcast to the world how excited they are.
They read:
"The hardest part about a zombie apocalypse will be pretending I'm not excited."

I used a blank stencil sheet and an exacto knife to carve out my "ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE" stencil. After completing that, I decided that the size of font I wanted for the rest of the text would be too labour intesive (read: annoying) to complete with an exacto, so I invested in two light coloured fabric pens and wrote out the rest.

I used Ashley's tutorial on the Lil Blue Boo blog as my rough guide to the process of bleach stenciling but ultimately came up with my own style.
From what I read in comments sections of the blog and online, if I had used straight bleach, the fabric would weaken. I decided on a 70% bleach, 30% water ratio. I filled a small spray bottle with this mixture and labelled it (safety first!). I tried the method of using a sponge, but found it wasn't fast enough for how large my stencil was.

Step 1: Create your stencil

Step 2: Prep your area, combine your bleach solution and wear gloves! (Also, being in a well ventilated area helps)

Step 3: Place a piece of cardboard in between the fabric you are working on and the back of the shirt.

Step 4: Place your stencil and spray your solution. As soon as all parts of the stencil are saturated, remove your stencil to prevent bleeding. (I used the accumulated solution on the stencil to create drips around my words, but if you want a clean look - have paper towels handy to dry the stencil and keep things clean.

Step 5: Wait. It depends on the colour of your fabric, but I found that darker fabrics worked MUCH better and it took about 10 min for all the affected areas to bleach. You can see it happening though, which is pretty neat. (As seen in this photo on my instagram, follow me: amymargaretc)

This photo has been edited with Instagram, so it appears more pink.

Step 6: Remove the carboard and rinse your fabric. Toss in the washer and when done, hang dry.

Step 7: If you got the look you were going for - congrats! If you needed to add more text like me, grab your fabric pen and go to town. I did about 3 layers with the fabric pen, washed the shirt again and then added a couple more layers for good measure.

TA DA! You just bleached a design onto a shirt! Good for you! Hope you enjoyed the process and share with me any photos you have!
Happy bleaching :)

Please exercise caution when using chemicals like bleach. I suggest gloves, clothes you don't mind ruining, and safety goggles. It would also be good to do this craft in a well ventilated area.