Galaxy Dress (DIY)

Today I had the absolute best idea EVER.  While at Toys R Us this morning, I was browsing the science isle (my favorite toys) and my mind wandered to this adorable galaxy dress I found online last week.

All of the sudden, I had this mind blowing idea: what if I spray a black dress with bleach and fabric dye?  Instant galaxy dress!  I ran home, dragged this short black dress out of my closet and got to work.  My homemade version is so perfect and cute that I'm literally giddy about it.

Here is the version I found online at spanishmoss, isn't it adorable?  It's just so nerdy, I love it!  Spoiler alert: I think I'll probably write about this dress tomorrow for Good{will outlet} Friday.

Only when I sat down to write this post did it occur to me that someone might have done this before. So I checked, and what do you know...there might be more tutorials for making a galaxy dress than actual versions to purchase.  But that's okay, I'm still going to tell you how I made mine, because anything handmade is still way more interesting than store bought items, right?

You will need:

black dress or t-shirt

liquid bleach

spray bottle

spray fabric dye (I used Simply Spray)

permanent markers

white fabric or acrylic paint (not shown)

Start by covering your work surface with plastic.  I used garbage bags and shipping tape to hold it down.  Be sure to choose and area that is well ventilated; bleach fumes are no good.

Fill your spray bottle with bleach.  I used an empty perfume bottle from Victoria's Secret, but make sure you clean the bottle well, because you don't want to mix any chemicals.  Also, throw it away when you're finished.  The last thing you want to do is spritz your neck with perfume and then--surprise! Now you get to smell like a public pool all day!  

Lay the dress flat and spray the bleach in sections. Avoid spraying the entire dress, or you will loose all the black.  Spray certain areas more than others to create bright spots.  Allow the dress to sit for a while (it will lighten gradually) if you want more white space, just spray more bleach.  When the bleach is dry, wash the dress.  I'm no scientist, but it seemed to me that when I spray the dress with dye, the bleach might affect how well the color saturates.

Lay it back on the covered surface and spray with color.  I used leftover Simply Spray fabric paint from my canvas shoe tutorial.  Use any color you want to add dimension.  When you add the colors, be very stingy. If you get spray happy the lighter areas will disappear right away.  Allow the dress to dry again.

I wasn't impressed with how light the bleach made my fabric, so I added more stars with some white acrylic paint.  After the paint dried, I colored some of the stars with yellow permanent markers.

If you don't wear dresses then try this with a t-shirt, pajama pants, or even bed sheets.

The possibilities (like space) are endless :)