tie-dye mania !

My sister-in-law always comes up with great birthday party ideas for my niece and nephew; my favorites are the ones that include a little project for everyone to do. A couple of times, we went to one of those paint-your-own-pottery studios; this year, she bought some white t-shirts and a couple of tie-dye kits (similar to this one, but larger, to dye more shirts). Awesome!

We all watched a short video that came with the kit, then went to town.

Here's how our three came out:

We ended up with a huge variety of shirts between the twenty-or-so of us at the party, and each one was beautiful and different.

Some tips for keeping things tidy:

1) Keep it outdoors if possible. Spilled dye is easier to clean up with a hose or the rain.

2) Cover your work surface with a water-proof cover if you care about your work surface staining.

3) Keep clean-up supplies close at hand. This might include paper towels if you use them, or reusable towels you're not concerned about staining.

4) Keep ziplock bags at the ready. Tie-dye needs to sit overnight; party guests can transport their shirts home for washing if they have the mess contained.

This is a pretty awesome party project for large or small groups, and people can spend as much or as little time on their shirts as they like. Thanks for inviting us, M!


(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)