When it comes to my style, I have a bit of a multiple-personality disorder... In my closet. I love flowers, glitter, colors, fringe... and bones. On one level, I think I'm attracted to the edginess of skulls and spines, but on another level, I think I just recognize the beauty of something so natural, functional, and vital. And, I love a trip to the Natural History Museum *almost* as much as I love a late-night forage on Fabric.com or a trip to my favorite shop. :)

So when a blog friend of mine challenged me to make something from a plain white t-shirt... and then my roommate came home with a an awesome spine tank top, I knew I had to figure some project out involving a spine.

Step 1: First Step: White Tee

The only things you really need for this project are a white t-shirt, some soft fabric paint or dye, some scissors, an empty bottle, and a paintbrush. (I used Tulip's soft paint. That stuff rocks.)

Step 2: Make Dye From Paint

The first thing I did was drip about a tablespoon of soft fabric paint into an empty bottle and add some water. Diluting the soft fabric paint makes it behave more like dye. I love the streaks that it makes in the shirt when you hang it up to dry-- and there is a little bit of glitter in the paint. :)

Step 3: Draw Spine

After you've hung your shirt to dry, lay it out on the ground and plan where you want your spine to go. I just made general little areas with a pen.

Step 4: Cut Out Spine

Cut em out! The spine shape does not have to be perfectly cut-- I actually think it looks more edgy and less like you're cutting little circles in the shirt if you make it a little rough. Which is good... because I'm not very good at tedious things. ;)

Step 5: Paint Ribs

After you've cut out all the spinal discs, just paint ribs on the back. Definitely use some Google image searches to look off a spine picture. For some reason, you envision things a certain way in your head, and then when it's time to draw them, you realize that the spine goes in a completely different way. :)

Also, I think it would look really cool with white ribs.