Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Tie Dyeing

Our group of homeschooling buddies got together a while ago to do some tie dyeing. All being a little crunchy, we decided to use natural dyes. I've never actually used them for anything before, but the colors are so incredibly vibrant, I can't imagine why we need chemical dyes at all. We took organic cotton t-shirts from Mountain Equipment Co-op, and tied them up with string and elastic bands. Jay scrunched up his shirt like an accordion from top to bottom, and tied it horizontally from one side to the other (his is the one on the left). Bee started in the middle of her shirt and tied it towards the outside edges. Once they were securely tied, we squirted the dye from the bottles onto the shirts - this works much better than dipping, as you can get it exactly where you want it (you might want to do this on your lawn!). After leaving them to sit for several days, we rinsed them out and revealed their designs. Considering how much dye we squirted on these babies, I can't believe how much white is still left on them!

The colors are surprisingly stable, and I haven't had a problem at all with them running in the wash. To learn more about these awesome natural dyes, click here.

Posted by Cheryl at 10:37 PM Labels: Arts and Crafts What awesome shirts...someone gave us a tie dye kit and I just bought t-shirts for us to dye...the natural dye sounds much better...

9:14 AM, May 26, 2007 Where did you purchase the dyes/what was the name? I'm looking to do tie dying at an earth day event and wanted to use something natural.

2:30 PM, March 27, 2009 Hi Kara,
The dyes came from Maiwa Handprints
(http://www.maiwa.com/) in Vancouver. It looks like you should be able to order the stuff online.
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