Tie Dye ~ part 1

I have been wanting to tie dye for ages and finally yesterday we got started on it. I bought this kit on sale for only a couple of dollars.

The instruction manual has lots of information about where indigo dye comes from and what it is used for, so it was great for the kids (and by kids, I also mean, me) to learn something new.

In goes the indigo dye.

The 7yr old stirs. If ever there was a kid who would fall head first into a barrel of indigo dye it would be the 4yr old. And I'm not even joking.

Then we had to dissolve the reducing agent in 2 cups of hot water.

It was stirred until dissolved.

Then poured into the dye solution.

The 7yr old loved stirring and was very content just sitting there (while I firmly held the apron strings of the 4yr old to stop her leaning too far forward...)

Whilst the dye was proving, or whatever the correct word may be, we chose some designs and put rubber bands around an assortment of white clothing. All the clothes we used for this project were pre-loved.

The 7yr old learnt about concentric circles.

And some of us tried to get all fancy.

When the dye was ready, we had to drench the clothes completely before squeezing out the water and air and immersing them into the dye. The clothes turn a kind of green until you bring them out of the dye and oxygen makes them turn blue! We were fascinated! I think this must be science at its best.

We had an old plastic sheet to lay the dripping clothes out onto. This makes a lot of mess so I recommend only doing this outside, wearing old clothes, aprons and rubber gloves.

I will show you the finished photos tomorrow!

I have shared this at NutureStore. Please click their link to find more creative ideas.