Summer Crafts with the Kids - Tie Dying

It just stands to reason that I would make sure to include some crafty activities for the girls this summer.  They enjoy it and we all know I do. 

Our first big project this summer was tie dying some tank tops.  I was a little unsure how well this would go over, especially with Zoe since she's only 4.  I bought a kit (50% off coupon!) and some little boy undershirts.  All in all, I spent about $16, and for 5 shirts, I figure that's not too bad.  We tie dyed 4 of them and I have something else in mind for the other.  A little experiment for later.

I pulled a few old tshirts out of the closet for clothing protection and we decided to go out in the backyard to do this on a tarp.  I'm crazy enough to play with dye with the girls, but not crazy enough to try it indoors.



The kit came with instructions on several different types of tie dye, which I thought was great.  And the bottles had the dye powder already in them, making for much less mess mixing than I had anticipated. 



Olivia and Zoe both chose the swirl method.  And the same 3 colors.  ;)



Isabelle chose the bull's eye method and used all the colors.



Mine was a pleated method.  Unfortunately, I don't have a finished picture of this, but trust me... it's a really cool effect.  I used black and blue, since they were the least popular colors ;)



The girls did very well.  They followed directions and were very patient.  I was very impressed.  We bagged the shirts up to sit for the recommended 6-8 hours and went about our business for the rest of the evening.  After we got home from Vacation Bible School, I rinsed them out (don't be a dummy like me and think you can do this without gloves... I'm still slightly tinged blue) and washed them twice then dried them.

Here are the results!



Isabelle's bull's eye.  I think it's really neat how the center looks like an eye.



Olivia's swirl.  We need to work on saturation next time, but I like it.



Zoe's swirl.  Not sure what's up with her face.  Crazy kid.



I think they did an excellent job!  They got a lot of nice comments today on them.  We ran into a few Sheriff's Deputies at dinner and they complimented the girls.  =)  And they were a hit at VBS tonight.



They want to do more, and I'm sure we will.  I bought 3 yards of white fabric and I'm thinking skirts next time.  Maybe some socks.  There's still a bunch of dye in the bottles (they loose their intensity after time, but they're still useable) and packets of more dye, so we could do this all summer.  LOL