It was New Year’s Eve, but instead of celebrating with drinks and parties, my cousin and I sat in a cold garage that stunk of bleach. To give some context, my cousin had been inspired by hoodies and shirts that had leaf imprints on them. We wanted to try it out using bleach. It took lots of trial and error to find an efficient and effective process. Here’s what we did:

Materials: Cotton clothing, Paintbrush (that you don’t mind ruining), Bleach or any cleaning solution containing bleach, Paper plate, Book or other flat and heavy object, Leaves of varying shape, Steam iron press, gloves, and a mask.

1. Go outside or in a ventilated area. Cover the floor if you’re worried about stains, and put on your gloves and mask.
2. Pour the bleach into a paper plate, start heating the iron, and lay out your hoodie. Decide on a layout for the leaves.
3. Take your paintbrush and brush bleach onto the leaves. The more you use, the more vibrant the print will be.
4. Press the bleached side of the leaf onto the clothing and use a book to flatten it; Do not smear and hold for about 10 seconds.
5. Peel the leaf off and immediately press the iron into the bleached area of the clothing. This should bring out the pattern.
6. Repeat steps 3-5 for the rest of the leaves. You can reuse leaves as long as they are intact. 
7. Leave the clothing out to dry in the sun, then machine wash.
   

The result should be an orange-brownish pattern of leaves on the clothing with the leaf’s veins and texture visible. If any of the above steps don’t work, there are a few things you can try. First, make sure your bleach isn’t expired. Second, if liquid bleach doesn’t show on the clothing, try a pasty cleaning solution that contains bleach. We used a Soft Scrub cleanser and painted that onto the leaves. Third, check that your clothing is 100% cotton. This is how ours turned out– Happy bleaching!