Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Dying to tie-dye

My kids have been BEGGING me to make tie-dye some T-shirts for FOREVER. Last Saturday was the first Saturday we've been home in FOREVER. This was it! I got a kit from Wal-Mart ($20):
It was really fun and easy. We also got most of our shirts at the D.I. (thrift store) for $1 each. Yeah! After getting all the shirts damp (I just ran them through a rinse/spin cycle in the washer), we got to wrap them all up and "tie" them with elastic bands according to the pattern we wanted. The kit came with some great ideas and instructions.
I would recommend doing the dyeing part OUTSIDE!

Ziploc baggies came in handy to store the shirts once they had been dyed so they wouldn't bleed onto anything else.
After letting them sit for 8 hours, I washed them according to the directions in the kit. Next time, I think I will let them sit longer for even brighter colors. They faded quite a bit. We wanted to get them done so Gabe could take some to Scout camp. Here we are:
Do we look tired? We are, we stayed up past midnight on Saturday rinsing them all out and getting them in the washer...

As soon as we got home from church on Sunday, we all put on one of our shirts. I decided Caspian needed one too.
Poor cat, he was in the right place at the wrong time...

8 comments:

  1. The shirts look great. That's something I've never tried.

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  2. I saw your shirts when I was over on Sunday. Looked good!

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  3. Those are so cute! We did that with our girl scout troop last year and they loved it. My kids have worn theirs over and over. Maybe we should make some more.
    Sandy

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  4. Love this!!!! We used to do this every summer - thrift store t shirts and Rit fabric dye and rubberbands..... I also completely love that your cat tolerates being dressed up. your shirts turned out great!

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  5. They look great- and I love that you did them with your kiddos.

    Soaking them is a soda ash bath beforehand helps the colors stay vibrant. We do tie dye every year for our family reunion. My sister in law's boyfriend used to dye stuff with a guy that did the grateful dead's stuff... he knows all kinds of cool tricks. Hope you guys make it a tradition too- lots of fun. Pillowcases, fabric for other projects, skirts, bandannas- the possibilities are endless. I did my Moby wrap the first year. :) Happy Dying---which is a much better wish than happy death right?

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  6. What a fun idea! I'm pretty sure my girls would love this. Yours turned out so great, too!

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  7. what a fun family activity! and they turned out so perfectly!!! seriously these are so cool, i gotta try this myself. i think it'd be fun to tie dye a dress. ooohhhh!!!

    spinning-threads.blogspot.com

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