I may have spent more time as a kid tie dying than other kids I knew. I have many memories of vats of RIT dye, yellow rubber gloves, and rubber bands. It was messy and a pain to clean up.
Tie Dye has come a long way since then and many different type of kits are available that take the headache out of it.
Everything you need is right inside. The dye comes already in the bottle and all you have to do is add water and shake. The kit also comes with plastic gloves, instructions, rubber bands, and an extra round of dye. Just to give an idea, for the 4 shirts we dyed we had half of each bottle left over. When we were done I emptied, rinsed, and dried the bottles and now have a second round of dye to use for next time.
You will need something to dye though. Here's our shirts. Pre-wash and do not use any fabric softener or dryer sheets.
The boys went with the spiral technique which is made by pinching the middle of the material, slowly turning, then securing it with rubber bands. The finished result will look similar to a cinnamon roll.
Vaughn did a longways accordion fold then I helped her wrap rubber bands around her shirt every couple of inches. Her finished product looked like a segmented snake.
Again, no need to worry - techniques and instructions are included in the box.
I covered the garage floor then let them go at it. Keep plastic bags nearby so that when they are done you can throw the shirt in the bag to set.
I let them sit about 9 hours before taking the rubber bands off and throwing them into the washing machine. This has been the first time for me that the dye has bled and colored the white of the t-shirt. Oops! Not sure what happened but no one seems to mind.
Here's Vaughn's shirt and mine. I did a bullseye pattern.
Here are the boy's shirts.
I think they turned out really well! Next time I think I would like to try the Resist in addition to the tie dye. (A resist is when something is put on the material, like a wax, where the dye cannot soak through to.) It sounds like fun!
Now it's your turn!
