DIY Skyline Print T-Shirt | Make Thrift Buy #13

[intro music]

Hi. You're watching Make Thrift Buy. A show

where you send me clothes that you've found
on the internet and I try my best to re-create

them. Today's challenge was sent in by chrisk
cupcakes, who asked me to re-create this t-shirt

by The Left Bank which retails for 20 to 30
dollars with 18 dollars shipping on top of

that if I wanted to buy it.

So let's go get started.

First, I drew a city skyline shape onto a
piece of cardboard with pencil. I cut this

out using scissors. Then I placed this half-way
down on a slightly too-large black t-shirt.

I also taped the cardboard onto the shirt
with the idea of keeping it in place.

Then I filled a spray bottle with some bleach,
put on a pair of gloves for safety, and I

started spraying the t-shirt with the bleach.
I didn't really know how much bleach to use,

so I kind of just went for it, spraying the
bleach on pretty liberally. I tried to spray

on the most bleach closest to the skyline
and less up at the top of the shirt. It slowly

started turning red wherever the bleach was.

I then carefully tried to remove the cardboard
and this is where I realized I probably shouldn't

have taped it down. So don't do that.

But anyway, I then gave the shirt a good rinse.
Then I chucked the shirt in the washing machine

on its own for a really short cycle. Then
I hung it out on the line to dry.

Unfortunately, some of the bleach made it
through to the back of the shirt. So I thought,

“Next time I should put a piece of cardboard
inside the shirt to stop this from happening”.

For some reason, I then totally forgot to
do this. I proceeded to repeat the same thing

that I did before, on the back of the t-shirt
this time. At least I didn't stick the stencil

down on the shirt this time which made removing
the stencil a lot easier.

Now I ended up with these areas where the
bleach went really blotchy which I think could

probably be fixed next time by being more
careful to do an even spray across the shirt.

Nonetheless, I rinsed the bleach off and I
hung it out to dry.

Okay. So the back sucks, but the front is
actually pretty alright.

Actually, looking at the original shirt, there's
bigger splotches on that shirt too. So, yeah.

I totally did the splotches on purpose?

I then decided to make some of the splotches
more obvious, or something. So I mixed up some

paint with a little bit of fabric medium and
I started painting blotches onto the back

of the t-shirt. I then took some artistic
license and turned this blotch down here into

a UFO. Then somehow that escalated fairly
quickly into a full-blown alien attack apocalyse

scene complete with falling asteroids and
burning buildings.

So yeah. That happened.

I then decided that I would maybe just not
touch the front at all and leave it as it

was. So after setting the paint into the back
of the shirt using an iron, the last step

was to cut the arms shorter. As t-shirt material
doesn't fray, I simply rolled the sleeves

over twice to cuff them.

[music plays]

So... I'd say you probably can make this yourself
and, if I was to do it again, I would remember

to put some cardboard inside the shirt before
I spray it with bleach. That was my main problem.

But yeah, for 3 dollars, I'm pretty happy
with it. So-

[scissor and zipper sound effects]

But if you wanted the real-deal, then I would
suggest checking out Left Bank's website-

the designer who made the original t-shirt.
The store's actually run by an independent

designer who hand-makes the stuff themselves
and isn't even terribly expensive. So it's

a pretty cool company to go and support if
you can afford to.

Although, theirs is missing a crucial alien
apocalypse scene on the back. Anyway, if you

enjoyed this episode, then please give me
a thumbs up, subscribe to my channel, share

my videos, and keep those awesome suggestions
for new challenges coming. I'll see you all

next time.

[outro music]