Refashionista: Shibori style jersey dress

Modeled by Marianne

First of all, let me note that time seems to be flying even faster than usual. This spring is turning into a whirlwind on concerts and performances. Elle and I had our first joint concert today and it went very well. All the three sopranos (me, Ann, and Elle's sister Anneliis) were fantastic and so was our fabulous accompanist/pianist Elle! So, don't think I've neglected Pearls & Scissors, we've just been rehearsing and preparing for the concert.

Needless to say, I haven't had much time to sew or craft. But, I thought it would be fun to share this Shibori style dress makeover I did a year ago with you. I don't have the before picture, so you'll have to just trust my word that it was a simple black t-shirt dress.

I use pleaching to change the color of the t-shirt, but you could also use fabric dye with a white t-shirt. It's so much fun to experiment with this technique as the result is always a surprise.

The process is real simple:
1) Take a t-shirt and start tying random spots of fabric with some rubber bands or some ribbon. Make sure you tie real tight, otherwise the dye or bleach will still get into the fabric and the result won't be good. You can see on the last picture that I tied simple circles in different places, and I tied on spot it two different places as well.
2) Prepare your bleach as instructed on the manual. I used powder bleach which needed to be put into hot water. Then put your t-shirt into it and let it sit there until all the visible places have changed color.
3) This is what my first try looked like after bleaching. At this stage rinse the bundle under cold water and then remove all the bands or ribbons.
4) Admire your new t-shirt!

I have to warn you that this techniques is totally addictive. Once you've tried it, you'll probably have the desire to remake all your existing t-shirts and jersey dresses. And why not try other fabrics as well? I'm totally hooked!