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4th of July Craft: Tie Dye Tees
Published 07.02.2009 | Permanent Link | Comments (6)
Family Tie Dyed Tees
By Marie LeBaron
We've got our patriotic outfits ready for the 4th, do you? If not, here's something fun to make for the whole family, Tie Dyed Tees. Special thanks to Jacquard Tie Dye products and Hanes.com for sponsoring some of the supplies.
Supplies for Tie Dye T-Shirts :
* tie dye kit - comes with bottles, dye, solution, rubber bands and gloves
* white clothing
* plastic bucket
* plastic covering
* water
* paper towels
What will you Tie Dye: First, you'll need to pick out the garments you want to dye. I chose a shirt for my son and husband and 2 twin skirts for my girls.
And a swimsuit cover for me (although you won't see me modeling this one, sorry!)
Basic directions: The best thing to remember about tie dying is being prepared. Have all your things ready to go before you begin, because you don't want to get that dye on anything else but what you're tie dying. The directions from Jacquard are pretty easy to follow from the kit. We did this outside on our patio table, covered in plastic, and held tight by rocks!!
Get your desired look: To get your desired look, there's different ways to fold, twist, and bunch up your clothes.
* For my girl's skirts, I was going for red stripes like an American flag, so I folded them like an accordion and placed the dye across each fold. I already have tops with stars, so I wanted the bottoms to be the stripes.
* For my cover up, I did blue on top for the "stars" area of a flag and red stripes on the bottom, accordion style like the skirts.
* For my husband's shirt, we went crazy and just mushed it altogether. I wrapped the bands everywhere to make a big ball.
* And for my son, he really wanted his shirt to be swirly. So I pulled the shirt from the belly and started to twist. Then we wrapped rubber bands around it, about 6 down.
My Son's Swirl look!
Applying the dye: Once you're ready for the dye, make sure you're gloves are on so the tips of your fingers don't go purple! Also, this is DYE and will color anything it touches, so make sure you have paper towels on hand just in case.
Now I applied the dye to all the rubber banded areas. I used only blue and red colors. I applied the blue first, making sure to get in the creases, then rinsed off my gloves to get ready to apply the red. Some spots started to mix and turn purple, but I still think I got my desired look.
Letting it set: When all of your desired dye is applied, cover up the area with another plastic piece. It now needs to set for 24 hours, letting the dye do it's magic.
Rinse, wash, and wear: My son could hardly wait the 24 hours that this dye needed to set. Right at 1:00 the next day, he came to me saying it was time! I rinsed each item under water until it rinsed clear. Then popped them into the washer for a good cleaning. We dried them and they were ready to wear!
Our family is set and ready for the day's festivities this 4th of July. We'll be showing off our patriotic colors at the parade, bright and early Saturday morning!
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About this column
This is a year-round Holiday column. Kids love Holidays. As parents we have come to appreciate how Holidays seem to help structure our lives. Plus, any excuse to have fun sounds good to us!
We'll admit it, now that we're parents, we secretly look for Holidays to celebrate and between National, Secular, Unofficial and Bizarre Holidays, we think there are enough days out there to keep us inspired every week.
This column will be a place where you can get inspiration for how to enjoy time with your kids. Crafting projects and ideas will be posted on Thursdays by our brilliant contributors (see below). Other fun ideas will be posted here throughout the week as the inspiration hits us!
About our Craft Contributors
Ellen Luckett Baker is the author of the long thread, a blog about handmade goods. She has always enjoyed making things, but the flexibility of staying at home with her two daughters along with the creative inspiration they provide has led her to craft on a daily basis. Combining her love of graphic design and sewing, she has created an Etsy shop selling machine embroidery designs and sewing patterns.
Ellen lives in Atlanta with her husband and two young daughters. She holds a B.A. in Art History and a Master's of Public Administration with a focus in Non-Profit Management.
Cindy Hopper was fortunate to be raised in a family who appreciated the arts. This background led to a Bachelor's Degree in Art Education. With a keen eye for design and color, Cindy has continued her love of art and is now passing her creative skills on to her three children. Cindy's family and friends are the beneficiaries of her passion for fun and meaningful creative projects. Cindy's personal blog, Skip to My Lou, has taken her love of a project to new levels. Postings keep the family busy -– from testing new recipes for holiday treats to designing and building floats for a neighborhood parade to making fabric rolls to hold crayons to creating themed parties. Cindy seems to have an unending supply of ideas for gifts, parties and rainy days.
Marie LeBaron is a 30 something stay at home mom in Utah. Before life as a mother, she graduated with a teaching degree in Early Childhood & Elementary Education, after which she taught four years of Kindergarten. After her first child was born, she decided to read books and sing silly songs at home. She misses the classroom, but she now gets to bring the fun and learning into her home and ours. You’ll see her kids a lot in these projects as they are her guinea pigs and for whom she's creative. You can follow more of her projects at her personal blog Make and Takes.
Brenda Ponnay is a stealthy secret agent who juggles parenthood to her adorable daughter by day and freelance graphic design by night. Whether it's painting, baking, drawing, making castles out of card board boxes or just doing the laundry with flair, Brenda Ponnay has finally discovered (at the ripe old age of thirty-six) that what really makes her happy is being creative every single day.
Brenda lives in Southern California with her husband, daughter, three cats and thirty-seven pet birds. You can read about all her crazy adventures on her personal blog: Secret Agent Josephine.
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This column is only for entertainment purposes. Any recommendations or information provided herein should not be used as a substitute for advice by a trained professional. For a full statement of our site policies, please click here.
Comments (6):
sandy said:
Thanks. I've wanted to give dyeing a try .... I think I can do it now with your tutorial.
Posted on July 2, 2009 12:37
Kara said:
You did a great job! my kids (boys)and I as well as our friends whom we celebrate the 4th with decorate shirts each year. Sometimes it' s difficult to come up with something new, but I love this! Thanks for posting it.
Posted on July 2, 2009 13:16
kari weber said:
I love that you didn't go OVER board with the dye. Sometimes tie dye comes out so gaudy due to the TOTAL-COVER-UP-EVERY-SQUARE-INCH-OF-CLOTHING-WITH-A-BAJILLION-COLORS approach. This is tasteful, and cute, without going to 60's. Love it. Would also be cute at Valentine's Day with pinks and reds...
Posted on July 4, 2009 00:10
Michelle@Alittletipsy said:
These turned out really cute! I love the patriotic colors and that you did stripes to go with your girls star shirts! Maybe i will do this for my family next year!
Posted on July 5, 2009 23:29
macy said:
I never knew it's that easy. I should give it a try on some of my old nursing scrubs before tie dying one of my favorite tees.
Posted on July 8, 2009 22:04
Kirk said:
I like your directions on how to tie dye. I do have a question regarding the 24 hours needed for the dye to bond with the fabric. Is it really necessary to go a full 24 hours? I have 2 hours to go, and cannot wait. Please let me know about this. Thank you.
Posted on December 17, 2009 22:14