Episode: 1573
Title: HPR1573: Make your own t-shirt with bleach
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1573/hpr1573.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 05:11:54

---

This episode of HBR is brought to you by AnanasThost.com.
Get 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code HBR15.
That's HBR15.
Better web hosting that's honest and fair at AnanasThost.com.
HBR is a very diverse audience, but I think I can speak on one thing that we can all or mostly agree on.
T-shirts. Sure, there are many places to buy tees that titillate our senses,
but it is rare to find one that truly fits you to a tee.
That's why I would like to introduce you to a simple process to make your own.
All you'll need is a roll of freezer paper, an exacto knife, a cotton or 50-50 blend shirt,
bleach, water, spray bottle, tape, some cardboard or foam board, and a printer or art skills.
I frequent a subreddit about bleach shirts, and often there is a cry that no one can find
freezer paper. It took three stores to locate my roll, but have enough now to produce many shirts.
If your area does not carry it, I have found an online with just a quick search.
Most art or hobby stores carry blank t-shirts for around $4.
First off, find or draw a simple design that will be easy to cut out. Think stencil.
Tape that down to a smooth piece of cardboard or foam board, and then on top of that,
tape down some freezer paper, shiny side down onto the art.
At this point, you will need to decide if you want to make a positive or negative.
You can cut out the pieces so that the bleach area will be the picture,
or like in the shirt I made for this tutorial, the area around the drawing will be bleached like
painting over a leaf. Use a sharp exacto knife and start cutting from the center of the art out.
Set aside pieces removed on a flat surface as to not lose them, and take your time.
Place a piece of cardboard inside the shirt for bleed through. Place your cut pieces shiny side
down on the shirt and use an iron to tack down the pieces. Then go over the whole thing with
the iron using a sheet of print paper in between to avoid ripping all of your hard work.
Use typing paper and masking tape to block off any sections you do not want bleach on.
A spray bottle with 5050 bleach water mix is lightly sprayed over the art and then dabbed with
a soft towel, spray spray, dab, dab, dab, repeat only a few times. Pull the board out of the
shirt and dunk the shirt in a bucket of water or run under a sink while scraping off the freezer
paper. Then write into a full washer to stop all action of the bleach. Ta-da custom t-shirt.
If you found this tutorial useful, please leave a comment. If you thought this episode sucked,
please leave a comment. Please contribute to Hacker Public Radio. Links to photos for a recent
shirt. Link to red-up bleach shirts will be in the show notes. When you're there, check out the
sidebar for more tutorials and tips. Thanks for listening.
You've been listening to Hacker Public Radio at Hacker Public Radio dot org. We are a community
podcast network that releases shows every weekday Monday through Friday. Today's show, like all our
shows, was contributed by an HBR listener like yourself. If you ever thought of recording a podcast,
then click on our contribute link to find out how easy it really is. Hacker Public Radio was
founded by the digital dog pound and the infonomicon computer club and is part of the binary revolution
at binrev.com. If you have comments on today's show, please email the host directly, leave a comment
on the website or record a follow-up episode yourself. Unless otherwise status, today's show is released
on the creative comments, attribution, share a light 3.0 license.
