DIY - Bleached Coral Pillow

 A while back I painted a coral pillow and shared it with you here

I love how the pillow turned out, but it does feel a bit "hard" where the paint is.

So I got thinking about a bleach technique that a friend of mine shared on her pinterest page and that it might be the solution I was looking for.

According to the instructions you would need:

Colored fabric
Stencil (If you are making your own you will need poster board, a pen, cutting board and a cutter)
spray glue
tape,
Ruler/yard stick
Black Permanent Marker
Rubber Gloves
Plastic Foil
Newspaper
Paper Towels
Spray bottle filled with a 50/50 mix of water and bleach

The first thing I did was photo copy my pillow and piece together the pages to make the pattern for my stencil.

I laid it on top of the poster board, and pressing firmly I traced the design onto the poster board. Using the cutter and the cutting board below I cut out the coral design.

 I spread out some newspaper, laid out my stencil and sprayed the back side with spray glue.

According to the instructions on the glue can, it has to air dry for about 15 minutes before I can place the stencil on my fabric (this way it remains tacky and I can pull it off a couple of times). I did have to respray the stencil after the 2nd and 4th use.

Which is good, because I had some taping and measuring to do

First I spread plastic foil on the table and since I was working outside I taped it down.

Next I measured the middle of my fabric and the middle of my design. Using a permanent marker I marked the lines where the fabric should be and marked the corners where the stencil needs to be.

Then I added some more cardboard so I wouldn't mess up the rest of my fabric with bleach. I pressed down all edged of my stencil firmly to ensure I get a sharp edge.

On my first try I used a 50/50 mix of bleach and water in my sprayer bottle. I squirted the open area of my stencil and right away dabbed off the extra solution using paper towel so it wouldn't spread too far and so my stencil wouldn't get soaked. When you know you'r done spraying, pull off the stencil.

This is what it looked like after 2 sprayings and about 35-40 minutes

It didn't get as light as I had hoped and it leaked a bit, making the branches look a bit chunky.

Let's try this again.

But this time I used 100% bleach in my spray bottle.

AH! Much better!! It is much crisper and not pink. I repeated this 3 more times.

After it line dried I went ahead and washed everything. Then sewed envelope pillows.

Oh and remember the first pillow? Well I went head and traced the outline of the coral branch with a black marker and it made it look much, much better

No two pillows are the same and it definitely is a playing game, getting it just right. Not spraying too much, not too little, wiping it down right away. So go ahead...PLAY!

Aloha A Hui Hou!

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