Spring break was here a couple of weeks ago. Since I have a J-O-B (which is necessary but quite inconvenient), I was not able to take the whole week off. Feebs and I did decide to take that Thursday and Friday off, though, and have a special girls only couple of days. We did all manner of fun crafting things like painting rocks for the garden, going to a paint your own ceramics place (that was a rather expensive endeavor!), and tie-dye t-shirts. I had never done tie-dye before. Feebs did a shirt earlier that week at her camp, and had a lot of fun doing it. We decided to head to Joann’s and pick up a kit. We bought 3 shirts, one for each of us, and one for The Mother, for Mother’s Day. We got home, and thank all that’s holy, I had a spare shower curtain. (Note to self: Ikea has plastic shower curtains for like $2 a piece. You cannot put a value on having your counters/ tables/ deck/ etc. protected. It is priceless and worth every penny. Stock up on them while you have young, creative kids!) We put it down and mixed the dyes. Since I had never done this before, I watched a YouTube video on the process. I really wish I had heeded his warning about wearing rubber gloves through the whole process. The picture was taking 3 days later, after several attempts to remove the color from my skin (dish soap, nail polish remover, and Mr. Clean magic eraser).
Things to remember for next time:
- Squeeze as much water out as possible after soaking
- A little dye goes a long way- squirt some onto the desired area, and work through with your fingers
- Do Not over-saturate the section with dye- it will puddle in the bag
- Learn how to make the desired patterns with the rubber bands
- Do not set out in the sun to set- colorful condensation will result and it will puddle under the cloth
- Even if the kit says it’s not necessary, use a color fixative, or at least vinegar, to set the dye
- Do not wash the garment right away
- Wear gloves!
The end results were fairly good, considering we’d never done it before. Once we got started we realized that we had A LOT of dye left. We decided to go all out. Feebs and I both gathered up all of our old white-ish dingy pajama and work out shirts and dyed them. We even did a bonus shirt and a canvas Trader Joe’s bag. In total we dyed 5 shirts for Feebs, 5 for me, 1 for The Mother, 1 bonus shirt, and the canvas bag. There was some definite color bleed, since we didn’t realize the excess color would puddle, but they still came out pretty cute. We will do better next time.
Loves,
M
Mrs. Collins Makes Stuff 