I Dream in Tie-Dye

I wanted to get the mermaids some fresh and bright summer dresses, and I've always loved Tie-dyed clothes, so I ordered some white dresses from dharmatrading.com which specializes in clothing ready-to-dye. Then I bought a tie-dye kit from the local craft store (and used my 40% off coupon). The whole project cost under fifty bucks. For three dresses, that isn't bad at all.




Step one: tie rubber bands around the clothing. The kit tells you how to create specific designs

Step two: apply the dye. Gloves are necessary if you want to keep your hands undyed. I am doing the Gween Mermaid's dress since she was taking her nap at the time.

Blue Mermaid and Red Mermaid starting with their favorite colors. They did all the dyeing on their dresses by themselves.

By the way, we are working on top of white garbage bags I cut apart.

On the box it says this particular kit can make 8 shirts. We barely had enough for these three dresses.

Step three: Wrap the dresses tightly in plastic wrap and let set for 6-8 hours. The waiting part was very painful for the mermaids.

Step four: wash each dress individually to remove excess dye.

The finished products:

Red Mermaid's happy rainbow

Right: Blue Mermaid's exotic blue lagoon.

Below: Gween Mermaid's carribean sunbursts

I took the mermaids on an outing the next day and they got compliments in every store we entered! It was fun for them to have me say, "...and they painted the dresses themselves!"

Materials: white cotton dresses from Dharma Trading (about $30.00 for three) tie dye kit $12.00. Total price: under $50.00