Rainy Day Tie Dye Shirts

As luck would have it, my daughters school was canceled last night and it's been raining all day.  When the phone call came in about the cancellation, my husband noticed more disappointment in my eyes than my 3.5 year old.  Once a child starts school even preschool, a routine gets set and there is only a small window certain tasks can get accomplished while they're gone.  Accepting the fact most of my tasks wouldn't be done I decided to look through my 'pins' to see which craft would be fun for us to do.  I chose the tie dye shirts for a couple of reasons:
      - I had 2 stained white shirts I debated throwing away
      - I happened to have all of the materials needed
      - It looked so much FUN and EASY!

Pinterest Inspiration:

http://theartgirljackie-tutorials.blogspot.com/2011/10/tie-dye-t-shirts-with-sharpie-markers.html

 My Results:


Pre-washed white or light colored cotton t-shirt (find one with stains you want to cover up)
Rubbing Alcohol
Liquid dropper (we used an old medicine dropper)
Small plastic cup(s)... I varied the sizes to make different shapes
Rubber bands
Variety of colored Sharpies (I wouldn't use brown or black)
Extra Embellishments are optional but I think they add to the shirts. 

1. Choose a spot to start and put your cup in right side up and secure a rubber band around the cup rim holding the shirt tightly in place. Instead of doing one at a time, I secured all the cups at once.

2. Place a piece of cardboard or a flattened cereal box between the front and back of the shirt.

3. Pick your colors and create a small design in the center of the stretched circle. I limited the amount of colors to 4.  Remember that complimentary colors will turn brown when they mix (ex. using blue and orange together)

4. Using your dropper drip around 10 drops of rubbing alcohol in the center of your design and watch the colors spread.  It's a bit of trial and error. We ended up adding more designs if the colors didn't spread out as much as we liked.  

5. Wait until the shirt dries then heat set the colors. I tossed ours into dryer but next time I'll run a hot iron over the shirt instead to make sure they're really set.

6. Once the shirt is dry, add embellishments- this is optional but my girls LOVE anything fancy. I choose felt buttons I found at the craft store.

Felt Attachments
1. Because I have young children, I first used fabric glue to secure the layers of felt and then also glued the felt attachments to the shirt.

2. Pick out a color thread you like and sew the embellishments onto the shirt.

*These shirts can look as professional as you make them.  I choose to give my daughter full liberty at designing her shirt- needless to say....She's VERY proud of it.

As luck would have it, my daughters school was canceled last night and it's been raining all day.  When the phone call came in about the cancellation, my husband noticed more disappointment in my eyes than my 3.5 year old.  Once a child starts school even preschool, a routine gets set and there is only a small window certain tasks can get accomplished while they're gone.  Accepting the fact most of my tasks wouldn't be done I decided to look through my 'pins' to see which craft would be fun for us to do.  I chose the tie dye shirts for a couple of reasons:
      - I had 2 stained white shirts I debated throwing away
      - I happened to have all of the materials needed
      - It looked so much FUN and EASY!

Pinterest Inspiration:

http://theartgirljackie-tutorials.blogspot.com/2011/10/tie-dye-t-shirts-with-sharpie-markers.html

 My Results:


Pre-washed white or light colored cotton t-shirt (find one with stains you want to cover up)
Rubbing Alcohol
Liquid dropper (we used an old medicine dropper)
Small plastic cup(s)... I varied the sizes to make different shapes
Rubber bands
Variety of colored Sharpies (I wouldn't use brown or black)
Extra Embellishments are optional but I think they add to the shirts. 

1. Choose a spot to start and put your cup in right side up and secure a rubber band around the cup rim holding the shirt tightly in place. Instead of doing one at a time, I secured all the cups at once.

2. Place a piece of cardboard or a flattened cereal box between the front and back of the shirt.

3. Pick your colors and create a small design in the center of the stretched circle. I limited the amount of colors to 4.  Remember that complimentary colors will turn brown when they mix (ex. using blue and orange together)

4. Using your dropper drip around 10 drops of rubbing alcohol in the center of your design and watch the colors spread.  It's a bit of trial and error. We ended up adding more designs if the colors didn't spread out as much as we liked.  

5. Wait until the shirt dries then heat set the colors. I tossed ours into dryer but next time I'll run a hot iron over the shirt instead to make sure they're really set.

6. Once the shirt is dry, add embellishments- this is optional but my girls LOVE anything fancy. I choose felt buttons I found at the craft store.

Felt Attachments
1. Because I have young children, I first used fabric glue to secure the layers of felt and then also glued the felt attachments to the shirt.

2. Pick out a color thread you like and sew the embellishments onto the shirt.

*These shirts can look as professional as you make them.  I choose to give my daughter full liberty at designing her shirt- needless to say....She's VERY proud of it.