Last year I got this shirt because it’s adorable and I wanted to rep how I feel. Unfortunately, I didn’t take into account that I hate wearing white… and normal T-shirts. I ended up only wearing it when I was lounging around the house or to bed, which wasn’t worth it. When I was going through my clothes this weekend to clear out some space and get rid of clutter, I saw this shirt and knew I had to do something so I’d wear it.
When I was in high school, cutting up shirts was the in thing. I remember cutting down the side seams and tying them together (then layering a tank top underneath), cutting strips into the back so they draped down, and cutting off sleeves to show off our non-existent muscles. Even though I’m crafty and grew up with this trend, I was never the best at it… they always looked kind of goofy on my (in my opinion) …so I decided to keep it simple.
I’ve noticed that some of the 70s styles are coming back in fashion and my shirt is a very soft white fabric, so I thought tie dye would be perfect. Another fashion trend I’ve always kind of enjoyed is the fringed crop tops. Why not turn this into a 70s themed craft? Tie dye AND fringed crop??? Yes please.
I already had a tie dye set in my craft room (I swear, I’m still not buying anything for my craft room this year). I used warm water to get my shirt damp (not wet, just damp) and fill the dye bottles. After shaking the bottles to make sure the dye was dissolved and finding my gloves, it was time to tie. I went with a simple spiral pattern for this shirt. Since I had extra dye, my friend Abbie and I did play around a little with a few other shirts and different folding patterns. We chose our colors and saturated the shirts.
Once we were out of dye, we wrapped our shirts carefully in plastic wrap and let them sit for about 6 hours. Carefully, we unwrapped them and used the hose to rinse the rest of the dye out while we were still outside (my sink and tub are both white or I would have thrown them in one of those). I always throw my freshly rinsed shirts straight in the dryer so the heat can set the fabric before their first wash, so I dried my shirt and grabbed my fabric scissors.
To make the fringe fall nice and relaxed, I cut the bottom hem off the shirt. Next, I set a straight edge under the words on the shirt so I wouldn’t cut too high and weighed it down a little with a heavy book. I carefully cut 1.5” strips vertically up from my hem to the straight edge and pulled at them gently to get them to curl in on themselves. Now I have a cute new shirt that I’m excited to wear around town! Next time you look at your old shirts and think they’re boring, think of some ways you can refresh their look. You won’t regret it! 😊 As always, if you take any fun pictures or videos, tag me on Instagram @SmileMakePeopleWonder and use the hashtag #DandelionSmiles. Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss out on the next exciting idea
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