16 | DECEMBER 10 • 2020 

H

oliday sweaters usu-
ally leave me feeling 
left out as the only 
one wearing blue instead 
of the colors most other 
co-workers and students 
are wearing for Xmas. I do 
own a store-bought sweater, 
but a teacher friend of mine 
was telling the story of how 
her aunt made her a hid-
eous sweater complete with 
golden gelt sewn in. It gave 
me an inspirational spark. 
How could I make a cool 
Chanukah shirt? 
I ordered some sweatshirts 
from Brody’s and went to 
work with my reverse tie dye. 
Royal blue worked the best. 
My kids and I sat and 
thought of some ideas first. 
We went with “Maccabi 
Strong” for the little guy, 
“Shine Bright” with a 

Menorah for my oldest, and 
my middle got different ways 
to spell Chanukah with a 
menorah on the back. 
We did a prewash of the 
shirts before starting. 

DIRECTIONS
• Start by putting a piece of 
cardboard inside the shirt 
to prevent the bleach from 
going through. Next, you 
can use chalk to draw on 

the shirt. 
• Arrange a clean workspace 
with a plastic cover. Now 
you are ready to reverse 
tie dye. 
• I put a small amount of 
the splash-less bleach in 
a yogurt cup and dipped 
my paintbrush to create 
the design. Less is better, 
since it can spread easi-
ly. Sometimes the reaction 
happens right away, or it 

may take a few minutes. 
• If you don’t remember 
what you covered, wait 
for it to lighten before 
you continue and you can 
always go back and fix up 
anything you don’t like. 
• If you would like, with a 
spray bottle, mix a 50/50 
bleach and water mix-
ture. You can use this to 
carefully add some drips 
and design around the 
edges. Be very careful, 
since once you spray, it 
will be there forever! 
• Once your design is fin-
ished, you want to wait for 
the bleach to remove as 
much color as it can but 
leave for no more than one 
hour. The color it will turn 
is based on the dye used 
in the fabric. Some blues 
will go totally white, but 
others will have greys and 
reds, etc. 
• To stop the reaction and 
reduce any spread of the 
bleach, wash it fully in 
cold water under running 
water. Then transfer it 
right into the washing 
machine with an extra 
rinse cycle. Dry normally 
and wear to impress. 

Brooke Leiberman of 
Farmington Hills is a mom and 
wife, educator and artist who 
enjoys sharing her skills and 
inspiring others to make art. She 
runs the Ravitz Art Center at 
Tamarack Camps and teaches 
art at Dolsen Elementary in South 
Lyon.

BROOKE LEIBERMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

MATERIALS

• Sweatshirt with 
50% or more cotton 
content
• Splash-less bleach 
• Paintbrush
• Chalk
• Spray bottle
• Cardboard

DIY: 
Not Your Ugly 
Chanukah 
Sweater 

CHAUNAKAH

CRAFTS

PHOTOS BY BROOKE LEIBERMAN

