I’m still not super confident in my actual sewing skills, so lately I’ve been focusing on making one-of-a-kind pieces by playing around with fabric instead. I’ll take plain dresses or skirts and add trims, dye them, bleach them—sometimes I even break out the airbrush. It’s all about experimenting and seeing what happens.

For this project, I grabbed a dress I didn’t really love anymore and started messing around with bleach to see how the fabric would react. I used a little squeeze bottle to apply bleach to the black dot pattern, which stripped out the color in some really cool ways. Then I dip-dyed the whole thing with a blue-black Procion dye, layering it right over the bleached parts. It turned out so good—the dye even brought out this subtle plaid texture in the fabric that I hadn’t noticed before. I’m kind of obsessed with how it turned out.

This denim jacket was another fun project. I actually planned this one out a bit more because I realized I didn’t have a good spring jacket. I wanted something oversized with big pockets—basically something comfy but cool. I found a cheap denim jacket and went to town with bleach, painting dots and mandalas all over the front and back. The original black finish wasn’t really working for me, so I gave it a quick spray with indigo dye, and it looked way better.

Then there are those pieces that just aren’t quite right. You know the ones—too loud, weird print, or they just don’t look as good on as you hoped. When that happens, I treat them like a blank canvas and see if I can turn them into something interesting. It doesn’t always work out; sometimes I end up with a muddy mess.

These two plaid dresses had been sitting in the back of my closet for a few years. I wasn’t feeling them, so I decided to dip-dye both in black Procion dye. One of them got a little bleach painting to see how the colors would shift. On the other one, I used black India ink to paint some messy flowers. Honestly, I’m still not in love with either of them, but I’m planning to keep experimenting. Even if the piece doesn’t turn out great, the process usually sparks new ideas.

I guess the main thing I’ve learned from all of this is that it’s okay to just play. Not everything needs to be perfect or even wearable right away. Sometimes it’s just about seeing what happens when you try something new. Bleach might do something totally unexpected, or a dye might highlight a detail you never noticed before.

It’s a mix of art, trial and error, and just letting go of the pressure to make something “good.” Even the pieces that don’t totally work out help me figure out what I want to try next. And honestly, that’s half the fun.