Christmas Project - Tie Dye

It has been a few years since we pulled out this project.

We had planned to purchase a stack of
cheap washclothes

but a cousin was going to send us some
T-shirts to do for her and her little grand daughter - matching.

And then she asked about the project,
and tacked on nice white washclothes.

Totally awesome!
THANK YOU!!!


Because Steve and Karen were living next door
(whole other story)
while they are getting their trailer moved,

I had extra kids and needed time without kids -
something like 6 - 8 hours.

Rhoda was able to take them one WHOLE day,
and that was a HUGE BLESSING!

THANK YOU!!!

Pretty soon, Kendra, Vannan, and I
had quite a production going.

We were trying to group them by color.
Rolled all of the clothes identically.

And to our surprise,
we discovered a large stack of Tim's discarded
white T-shirts.

So we tied them up too!

As well as a white dress that was stained for Bali.

A week later, we were dismayed to find that
the Magenta, Tourquoise, and either the Lime or Yellow,
didn't hold their color.

Not many items were done with JUST those 3 colors,
so most items still looked pretty good.

Here I got some of Joel's OLD socks,
and tied them up and put them under the tray to sop
up some of the stray colors.

These socks have now gone through the wash around a dozen times.

I was surprised at the dye selection at Micheal's

AFTER

we had finished.

I think I need to get some more colors.

This is one project we absolutely enjoy doing.

And there are all of the finished projects.

I think everybody liked theirs.

It was a labor of love, because our kitchen table is a tad short
for such work.

And by the time we finished with the week of working with this ...

our arms, backs, necks, and legs hurt.


Things we learned ...

1.  Do this in the summer.
2.  Outside messes would have been easier to clean up.
3.  Use more dye than you think you need.
4.  Let them drip a while when you pull them out of the Set Bath,
otherwise they are too saturated to allow the dye to absorb.
5.  How to fold shirts to give  star bursts, crosses, and hearts.
6.  Purple and Violet are NOT the same color.

7.  Remember to fold the stuff so the TOP has the most exposure.
Some of our items have an awesome BACK!!!  LOL