Tie Dying with the Girls

The girls all had the day off from school the other day, so we decided to break out one of their tie dye kits from Christmas.  It was far easier than I thought it would be (thus the grand delay in starting the project in the first place)!

1. Buy white t-shirts from Sam's (or wherever) and pre-soak them in the powder included in the kit for about 30 minutes.
2. Pick the colors that you want to make.  You are given red, blue and green and then recipes for making other colors.  We picked green, blue, pink and purple.
3. Prepare the area (outside).  We put garbage bags down and then put a plastic grocery sack at each position too. Rubber gloves are recommended for everyone because it does stain your skin. You will also need paper towels.

4. Use rubber bands to make different patterns on your shirt.
    
Laura: She picked up her shirt from the middle and then rubber banded about six times in succession.
    

Marie: She did the classic swirl.  You start from the middle of the shirt and twist it while it is flat until you have a kind of ball.  Then you put three or four rubber bands on it so it looks like a hockey puck with different sections.

     Jenny: She wasn't having any of that instruction stuff.  She just made rubber bands wherever she wanted to, all over her shirt.









5. You make up the dye (VERY messy, use gloves)
6. Then you take the dye and, using squirt bottles, you place the dye where you want it on your shirt.  I recommend coloring each section separately.  Saturate, but don't oversaturate.  (It will bleed from one area to another if there is more color than the shirt can absorb.
7. Put shirt inside plastic grocery bag and leave it for at least an hour.
8. Rinse out all of the dye until it runs clear.
9. Dry on the line (from left to right: Jenny's, Laura's and Marie's)

10. Wear with pride! I also used a Shout Color Catcher the first real washing, and they don't seem to bleed at all now.  Here's a link for a free sample.