Leaving a Mark

There are plenty of ways that people leave their own mark in the world.

Some choose to leave their mark on the music industry (like Whitney, God rest her soul), the business world, or major league baseball.

Some take the simpler route, planting a beautiful garden for the world to enjoy, giving back to the community through volunteer work, by vowing to do at least one good deed per day.

Gigi and I recently chose to leave our marks on T-shirts, through a process called watermarking.

We may not aspire to change the world but we do aspire to look unique while making out ways through it.

This is what you will need: 

• 1 pre-washed shirt t-shirt or tank top
• Graph paper
• Sharpie
• Paper
• 1 bottle of Elmers blue gel glue (it is critical that you buy this exact brand)
• Box of clothing dye

Ready, set, craft.

The longest step of this project for me, was choosing the words to apply to the shirt. I searched through old journals, Pearl Jam lyrics, famous quotes, the backs of many cereal boxes looking for something that caught my eye.

Snap! Crackle! Pop! just wasn't cutting it for me.

 I finally settled on the intro quote from one of my favorite songs by the Stars called Your Ex-Lover is Dead:

 'When there's nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire.'

 Gigi used a poem that I had written:

 'Love poems, hips bones, finding a man that can dance. Fast times, ancient rhymes, people who dare to chance.'

 Then she added her own poetic lines:

 'Cartwheels, high heels, feeling the sun on my face. Moon beams, pipe dreams, knowing I'm in the right place.'

We were set!

We started by writing the quote in dark marker on the graph paper and then sliding the paper into the shirt and tracing with the glue. I found the glue application very stressful.

Holding my breath, trying not to have a shaky hand, heart racing. I also considered this to be my cardio for the day.

Gigi is less high strung than me so she said she found the process quite enjoyable. Weirdo.

And I think that showed in the end result. Perfection.

Once the glue has been applied, place the t-shirts somewhere where no one can sit on them, or drop something on them, or where any dogs or cats can interfere with the drying process, and leave them to dry for 24 hours.

The next day, whip up your fabric dye as per the instructions on the box and dye your shirt.

We used a bucket rather than a flat tub and failed to mix the dye well enough. It ended up working out though because our shirts had a really cool tie-dye look to them that I am just CRAZY about.

If after you've dyed your shirt and have rinsed all of the excess dye from  it, there is still glue residue, use SoftSoap to remove it.

Throw your beautiful creation into the washing machine with like or dark colors and BAM.

There you have it. You're own custom made shirt.