Tie-Dying Part 2!

Yippeeeee!  It worked.  I went into the kitchen this morning to undo the wrapped items.  The instructions tell you to unwrap, cut off the rubber bands and then wash the items in hot water with a little bit of laundry soap.  Since I didn't think that my neighbors would appreciate my using our communal washing machine for this purpose, I just prepared a dishpan in the sink with hot water and soap and dunked each item separately in there after unwrapping.  I then rinsed each out and hung them up to dry.  I put on my thicker rubber kitchen gloves for this stage because I didn't think that the gloves included in the kit would protect my hands sufficiently when I was washing the items in hot water, and it was no problem. 

So, I think everything turned out pretty cute :-).  In fact, the following two items will be available on my Etsy shop for purchase or custom order.  Here are the pink yoga pants that I did circles on.

And the baby onesie that I did with circles in orange, pink and purple.

And the t-shirt that I think I'm going to keep for myself!

Mmmm, now I think I want to try a series of items in a yellow, green, blue palette.  Ooooo, a whole new world has opened up to me  --  thanks Tulip!  Oh, and if you decide to give it a try yourself, go to http://www.ilovetocreate.com/ to order your kit and enter the code “fave1009” for free shipping at checkout (which expires 11/30/09).  Happy Tie-Dying!!

Today's Thought:   http://www.favecrafts.com/ really is an amazing, FREE website for all things crafty.  They are constantly coming up with new ideas and new contributors, so it's so worth checking back often!

Tie-Dying Part 1

Ok, so the kit arrived, and I was faced with going through with this!  It's from Tulip, and it's called the SuperBig One-Step Tie-Dye Kit. 

I thought about dying some yarn and then crocheting something with it, and Tulip also provides an eBook through the FaveCrafts site (http://www.favecrafts.com/Wearable-Crafts/Fun-with-Fabric-Dyes-eBook-from-Tulip) with a lot of projects in it (frankly, that's where I got the yarn dying idea, but chickened out!).  But, ultimately, I decided that I would do some traditional tie-dye projects.  I ordered some t-shirts, baby onesies, and yoga pants from http://www.jiffyshirts.com/ and they got here in one day!

So, while ghouls and goblins were roaming the streets tonight, I was creating some scariness of my own.  Actually, my biggest fear was making a mess in my white and light grey kitchen, but what good would the kit be if that wasn't anticipated?!  I have to say, the kit is pretty well stocked with a plastic tarp, multiple pairs of plastic gloves (which are a little bit thin and big, but they do allow you to have the needed dexterity, so they ended up being fine), 8 plastic bottles and I'm not sure how many dye packs, but there were plenty of colors in there.  I decided to go with orange, pink, and purple.  I made the orange by mixing some of the yellow powder with the pink powder.  I put about a teaspoon of dye powder into the plastic bottle and filled with water to the top and closed the top and shook to really mix it up.  The instructions say that you've got about 45 minutes in which to use the dye; after that, it starts to lose its effectiveness.

The instructions tell you to wash the items that you are going to dye first (and a friend told me to stick with all cotton), so I handwashed the all-cotton items that I decided to do in these color combinations (1 t-shirt, 1 onesie, and the pink yoga pants; I decided to keep the other items in case this works and I want to try other color combinations).  Then, while the items were still damp, I wrapped rubber bands (which are also included in the kit) around parts of the items to create the sections where you are supposed to apply the dye.  Then, you lay out the items on paper towels on top of the tarp and start dying.  Now, here's where it gets tricky -- it's very easy to drip the dye in areas you don't want while you're squeezing the bottle to saturate the areas you want to cover.  But, overall, I think I managed to not get dye all over the place or on myself.  Clean-up was pretty easy also, I just kept putting everything in the sink after using, then I rinsed everything thoroughly and set aside to air dry.  As long as you rinse and wipe down stuff quickly, the dyes seem to wash away.

Ok, well, now I have to keep you in suspense (and myself) and ask you to return tomorrow to see how it all turned out because, after dying the items, you have to wrap them in plastic and let them sit for at least 4 to 6 hours according to the eBook (the instructions in the box say 6 to 8 hours).

Today's Thought:  Take it easy on the Halloween candy, happy Trick or Treating everyone!