Hi everyone!

This past week has been full of clothing DIY fails. I tried to tie dye a black shirt with bleach, paint a picture of Bob Marley onto another shirt, make a yoga mat strap..

..and each one has failed miserably. (inserts picture of hideous fail)

So I was very happy when this DIY worked out and I was able to post it!

DIY Soft Grunge Barbie Tank Top

I love all things grunge, especially when it comes to clothing. It's edgy, fun, and a little bit out there. Lately I have been pairing a lot of more girly clothing items with the grungey items, because I love the contrast. I decided to make this Barbie top, and don't get me wrong, I seriously dislike "Barbie" and the unrealistic beauty expectations placed on young girls. So it's meant to be more of an ironic statement piece.

As a short little girl with dark hair, I never felt as pretty as the taller, slimmer, blonde girls who looked like walking dolls. I was more like the emoji ball in the photo below (taken by my best friend who works at a retail store). All lost and annoyed in a sea of pink dolls.

Regardless of whether you love or hate Barbie, the shirt still came out pretty cool. You can always use the same method and just write something else.

I started off by watering down some pink fabric paint, and turquoise fabric dye. Both worked out the same, so you can choose which one you would prefer. Make sure you use a lot of water if it is a dark or bright colour, so that the end result is more pastel.

I put the shirt over a piece of plywood, to keep it taut and easy to draw on, as well as preventing the colour from transferring to the back of the shirt.

I then looked up a picture online and used it for reference when drawing the rough sketch on the shirt in pencil.

Once I was happy with the sketch, I took a piece of cotton wool and dipped it into the watery pink, and then blotted it onto the shirt in random places, avoiding the circle in the sketch.

When I was happy with the amount of pink, I repeated the process with the turquoise, covering all the white spaces.

I then went over it in some places with the pink, to blend the colours together a bit better.

When I was happy with the colours, (note, they get a lot lighter when dry) I started on the text. I used the same pink paint, this time I didn't water it down. Carefully painting each letter.

I then painted the inside of the circle blue.

After drying over night, I added a white border around the lettering for a finishing touch.

Done! Easy as that.

Here it is in a pastel outfit,

..and with a pink Barbie wig.

You can also make it look more grungey by adding it to a darker outfit.

Thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed this DIY, and if you try it out please share a picture in the comments! Have a great day!

Side note, here is a selfie with my very first laptop that I was able to buy with my Steemit earnings, so thank you Steemit community!

Namaste