How to Tie Dye.

We have an early summer tradition. We raid our closets for white shirts that aren't so white anymore (chocolate milk, ketchup, coffee stains :-). Also, during the year, if I come across a nice cheap white dress for K, I purchase it in a bigger size and keep it aside too. What do we do with all of these tired old clothes, you ask? We tie dye them of course! We have our own little tie dye party, giving new life to our old stained things.

This is what is needed:

Dyes (found at markets and craft stores - I found mine at Walmart)

Squeeze bottles (found at craft stores)

Rubber bands (craft stores)

White clothes to be dyed.

A dying pot filled with clean cool water (this is the pot I use for all of my dying - I don't use my dye pot for cooking food)

Rubber gloves.

First we wash our clothes. Then, when they are still damp, we tie them up with rubber bands.

Once they are all rubber-banded up, we mix the dye to the dye instructions, put on our gloves, and fill the squeeze bottles. We decide on what color should go where (not an easy decision for a 6 year-old but a very easy one for a 3 year-old!) and squeeze the dye onto the garment.

We love the concentric circle tie dye patterns the best. You can see how we tied K's dress up with rubber bands to get this effect... the dye will not penetrate the white cloth where the rubber bands are tied tightly... thus making the white circle suns.

Here, K wanted to experiment with a whole lot of colorful circles.

When the dye has been applied to each garment, put it in a plastic bag to rest and 'set'.

We also each made a rainbow silk - here is Mr T's... he liked squirting his dye best.

The dye instructions say to leave the dyed garment in the plastic bag for 6-8 hours for maximum color. We, however, wanted our clothes to be gentle colors, so we washed them in HOT water after about 2 hours (besides, it was just too hard to wait much longer!)

Here is K's dress and Mr T's t-shirt. Didn't they turn out wonderfully?

I made them jump for joy, (in an effort to get rid of the spazzy grins in the photo above but included it anyway as it's just too damn funny!)

We left our silks over night and they are much brighter.

We will be a colorful little Rainbow Family this summer.

Blessings and magic,

Donni