St. Patrick's Day Tie Dye

To make sure our kids had something green to wear on St. Patrick's Day, I decided we should tie dye shirts. (If St. Patrick had been a hippie, he TOTALLY would have worn the shirts we made!!)

I figured it would be a fun project to do together and I was completely right! 

One a recent trip to a local fabric store, I asked a sales rep if she had any fabric dye and explained the project I had in mind. She walked me to the aisle that had tie dye kits ... brilliant! Everything we'd need in one little box. 

On the Thursday before St. Patrick's Day, I donned some gloves, soaked the shirts in the ash powder/water solution, and then got to work twisting, rubber banding, and marbling the shirts. Once the grunt work was done, I mixed up the two squeeze bottles of dye (light green and dark green), and then invited the kids (one by one) to help me put the dye on the shirts. They decided which color went where and how much color to apply. 

Conor LOVED the squirting processes and insisted on doing most of it himself. Annika was a bit more artistic in her approach, but still wasn't shy about using the colors. Valeria (Annika's little BFF who was over for a play date) preferred playing princess, so didn't wind up making a shirt ... oh well!)

After applying the dye, the shirts had to sit in plastic bags for 24 hours. Once that milestone was reached, I rinsed the shirts in cold water and then washed/dried them. SUCCESS!! 

I love it when a project seems simple and winds up being so. Too many projects seem like they should be easy but wind up taking a lot longer and requiring a lot more energy than expected. I'd definitely tie dye with the kids again and might even venture into using more colors!

Marbles make the circle patterns

Soaking, soaking, soaking

Finished product!