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Sunday, July 3, 2011

Stars & Stripes Forever Tie-Dye

We sang all three verses of The Star Spangled Banner today at Church.  It felt amazing.

I love my country.


 I showed you The Rocket Pop Dress and New Glory His and Hers Independence Day Outfits and here's one more.  Stars and Stripes Forever Tie-Dye

Here's how I did it -





Supplies:
  • White Cotton T-Shirts
  • Regular Rubber Bands
  • Mini Rubber Bands (for hair)
  • Rit Dye Scarlet
  • Rit Dye Denim Blue
  • Marbles ( I used the flat bottom kind that you get in the floral department)
  • Salt

 Step 1:  Place a marble on the underside of the shirt.  Wrap tightly with mini rubber band.  Repeat over the top half of the shirt.

Step 2:  Gather the bottom of your shirt in an accordion like fashion and wrap tightly with rubber bands.  See photo above.

Step 3:  Wrap the entire top of the shirt in plastic wrap and secure with more rubber bands.


 Step 4:  Prepare the red dye according to the directions on bottle.

*The directions on bottle tell you how to make 3 gallons worth of dye.  Unless you're clothing an army you don't need this much.  My friends and I did a total of about 10 shirts and we only used 1 gallon.  To prepare for 1 gallon use the following:  1 gallon of water, 1/3 cup salt, 4 tsp liquid dye.


Step 5:  Soak the bottom half of shirt in red dye until it reaches the color you want.  (You can see from the picture I had to get creative in keeping the top half out of the dye.)

Step 6:  Remove from dye and rinse the bottom half of the shirt until water runs clear.

Step 7:  Remove plastic wrap and prepare blue dye. 
Step 8:  Soak and dip the top part of the shirt in the blue dye until it reaches the desired color.  Rise like you did for the red.

Step 9:  Remove rubber bands and follow directions on bottle of dye.

*Note: Directions said to wash in washer with warm water.  The red bled onto the white to give it a slight pink color.  I think next time I will wash in cold to help set the color better.  Any other suggestions?  It was just the red we had problems with.


Have a safe and fun 4th of July!

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11 comments:

  1. Fun shirts, but where's the one for John? Also it didn't say in your tutorial and you probably already know, but for those new to tie-die it's important to know that if you roll the shirt instead of folding it like an accordion, the dye doesn't get to the inside half of the shirt so it slowly fades to white. That's probably the only useful piece of knowledge I gained for 5 years of girls camp. hahaha

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  2. Haha yeah... There's no way John would ever be matchy matchy or wear a shirt that didn't have a sports team on it. :)

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  3. If you soak it in vinegar before you wash it, it will set the color so that it won't bleed;)

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  4. Totally adorable...John is missing out! :)

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  5. Such a cute idea. Leave the rubber bands on when you wash and your band lines will be more pronounced!

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  6. I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it would be awesome to do this with my kids! We make patriotic shirts every year on Flag Day. They turned out so well. Thanks for the great idea!

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  7. Oh my goodness - I love these shirts, and that onesie - GAH! I love it!

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  8. love this! Reminds me of Captain America!

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  9. These are awesome. So festive. I hope you'll add this to my Patriotic Project Parade going on through July 4th.

    http://www.itsybitsypaperblog.com/2012/06/patriotic-project-parade-linky-party.html

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