Tie Dye T shirts

I'm sorry it has been a few days since my last post. The weather has been beautiful here and we have been enjoying it to the max. In a span of two weeks time we have gone from having 3 feet of snow on the sides of our driveway to mowing the lawn for the first time this year! The lawn is actually brown and dead. Until last week most of it was covered with snow and ice and had been for 6 months! I was breaking my back raking all of the dead bits of grass though, and went the lazy way and had the lawn mower suck it up. I'm sure the neighbors thought I was crazy. No matter, if they are listening close enough and hear my kids screaming as much as they do, they already know I went crazy long long ago.

So, have you all entered the latest giveaway? If you haven't, quick, enter! You have until Friday 7pm PST.

Speaking of the latest giveaway, Mamom's beautiful hand dyed items had me itching to dye something. A few weeks ago the girls and I bought some dye and some shirts and I had forgotten about it until I posted on Sunday. Now, listen here, I'm an expert at a lot of things (making grilled cheese, wiping butts, sweeping floors) but am not an expert at dying clothing. I have done it a few times with my kids so I will share what I know (which isn't much, but is enough to put a smile on your little people).

What you will need:
- T shirts (we have only used white in the past but any color is fine. Make sure your dye is darker than the
   shirt if you use one that is colored)
- Fabric dye (we use the grocery store variety)
- elastics
- Rubber gloves (Puhlease use rubber gloves) and vinegar (optional)- both not shown

 Grab a section of your shirt and tie an elastic around it. Make sure you are just taking one layer of the shirt, either the front or back, not both. You can then leave it like this, or....

Tie another elastic above it. Your first elastic is going to create your classic tie dye ring. The dye is going to touch everywhere on your shirt except for where your elastic is. Having two elastics will create a ring within a ring. You can keep going on this one, or move on to another part of your shirt. I was under the strict command of two drill seargents sitting beside me. They wanted all of the creative say. I only did what they told me to!

Can I also just point out the beautiful warm sun shining on my table giving it that nice orange glow. Warm sun, how I've missed you!

Our two shirts all tied up.

Now, follow the directions on your dye. Or, follow them more or less like we did. What you are seeing in this very bizarre photo is a sink full of hot hot water mixed with our dye and our shirts dropped in. You can also see my kitchen window, flower pots and a lot of steam. The girls thought this looked like witch's brew.

We left our shirts in for about 5 mins. Just swirl them around and watch them. The longer you leave them in the darker your color will be. Remember they will always look darker when wet. Then rinse, rinse, rinse! Rinse until the water runs clear. Use gloves. My hands at the moment look like I just baked about 1000 blueberry pies. I never learn.
Once you have rinsed your shirts you can also soak them for a few mins in a sink of water and vinegar (1/2 cup or so). This will set the dye. I'm not sure how I know this, or if it is true, but if you have something in the wash you think might bleed you can throw vinegar in and it doesn't.

Here comes the fun part...

Remove your elastics and see what happened! The kids will ooh and ahh. :)
Throw your shirts in the dryer.

All dry! Fun play shirts the kids are proud they designed themselves!