Terrific Tie-Dye Tee’s… in Se7en Steps.

So imagine you are on holiday with 11 kids all chomping at the bit for action after weeeeeks and weeeeeeeeeeeks of rain: Tie-dye Tee’s of course, they are so bright and fun that they feel like summer.

Meet the Players:

• A bunch of white t-shirts.
• A bunch more of elastic bands.
• And some different colored dyes.

Play the Game:

Step 1: Wash your shirts before you dye them. T-shirts usually have some sort of starch in them that makes them look nice and crisp in the store. This is also why t-shirts never look quite as good after you have washed them. Needless to say this starch prevents the dye from attaching – trust me on this wash your shirts first.

Step 2: On a dark and stormy very wintry night, in the pouring rain, and everyone is sitting around in their pajamas waiting for supper. T-shirt preparations: give everyone a pile of elastic bands and a t-shirt, and let them snap away.

And one of us made lots of bangles.

And when you are done you have a pile of t-shirts ready to dye in the morning. (Make sure all the knots are tied really tight).

Step 3: Hopefully the sun will come out the next morning. Get your dyes out. We used these dyes, which are fabulous. You just dip and leave the fabric to dry in the sun.

We popped the dye into plastic containers – red, yellow, blue and mixed some green. (Don’t mind the stones in the tubs it was really, really windy at the time!).

Then dip away.

Try and dip different corners into different colors, and work from light colors to the darkest, so that the colors stay crisp and clean.

Step 4: Hang them out to dry keeping them all knotted.

Step 5: Once they are dry open them up and take off all the elastic bands.

Step 6: And hang them out to dry completely.

Step 7: Your adult helper needs to iron these shirts when they are completely dry so that the dye fixes onto the shirts. And they are good to wash and wear.

Warning: Unless of course you were convinced not to wash them beforehand and you didn’t wash them… then after their first wash your bright fun t-shirts will look a little bit tepid like this! Trust me – wash your shirts before you start!

So now we have a whole lot of shirts that are ready to be dyed all over again.