I don’t claim to be a hippy. I have friends and family members who do though, so they’ll be proud of this post. And I do have (somewhere, slightly hidden) my high school sophomore yearbook picture where I am sporting a completely awesome tie dyed shirt, purchased directly from some true hippies in Mendocino County, Ca. I loved that shirt. It reminds me of my short-lived skater/grunge/hippy/wannabe stage I managed to eventually overcome.
In coming up with ideas for summer activities for the kids, I must have tapped into my subconscious memories of that shirt. I thought the kids would have fun making tie dye shirts. But I don’t own any dye. I fully intended to go out and get some, but then I remembered my Kool Aid stash. I use it for homemade playdoh sometimes. And for drinks. I wondered if it would work for tie dye.
Google quickly told me it was possible. After a few searches, I had the rough workings for a tie dye recipe, and a few pointers. It seems like this would totally work out, as long as I didn’t skip the heat setting part of the instructions.
Materials Needed:
-Kool Aid packets (unsweetened…you want the pouches).
-Distilled White Vinegar
-White t-shirts (we used old ones that aleady had a stain or two)
-Plastic or latex gloves
-Rubber bands
-Spray bottle filled with water
-Protective surface for your work area (we used a trash bag that we cut open)
-Containers to hold your Kool Aid dyes (I was at the mercy of on-hand containers to use, so I used a combination of Wilton decorating squeeze bottles, some sports bottles, and some small bowls/ramekins.)
-Cookie Sheet
-A broiler pan (to catch drippings)
Directions:
-Mix one packet of Kool Aid powder with 6 teaspoons of distilled white vinegar.
-Place Kool Aid mixture into your container of choice
-Lay t-shirt flat on work surface. Spray with water bottle to evenly dampen the shirt’s surface.
-Flip shirt over and dampen the other side as well.
-Tie shirt with rubber bands using the design of your choice. (I will show how to make a star shape, heart shape, and spiral patterns near the bottom of this post.)
-Add Kool Aid mixtures to the shirt.
-Let shirt sit (still tied with rubber bands) for 6-8 hours.
-After 6-8 hours, remove rubber bands and place shirt on a hanger. Hang to dry.
-After drying, make sure to heat set your shirt. You can use a hot iron (use an ironing cloth between your shirt and your iron…I used a flour sack towel.) Or you can throw the dry shirt into the clothes dryer for 1-2 hours on the highest heat setting.
-Wash with cold water.
My experience:
It was basically smooth sailing for the first several steps. I hit a minor snag when I went to hang them up to dry. The heart shirt looked pretty awesome until I hung it to dry. It was still pretty wet at that point, and I think the liquid dripped down into the heart shape. The end result was a pink blob, and not the cute heart like we had intended. If I were to do it again, I would have probably laid that one flat on the cookie sheet to dry.
Everyone in the family loved the star. That one turned out the best.
I honestly don’t know what I did wrong. I ironed all the shirts (front and back) on the hottest setting of my iron. PLUS…I also put them in the dryer (after ironing) for a total of 2+ hours. I know the color was definitely heat set.
I cringed when I went to wash them. I was afraid it would be the end. And it was. The colors faded almost completly. All I have now are three shirts that have blotchy, barely there Kool Aid stains.
The redeeming factors are these:
- This was our first tie dye attempt. We learned a lot about pattern design, color application, and the ‘surprise’ of how all those rubber bands and color patches could make a really cool look.
- I could tell the kids were excited about this whole process. They were looking most forward to wearing their artwork. We will definitely attempt this again, but with RIT dye instead.
- I can probably re-use the shirts for my next tie dye attempt.
- We still had fun, and we still learned. I think we’ll feel a lot more confident about our next tye dying adventure (with the real stuff, not Kool Aid).
- It got the kids outside, off of the video games, tv, etc, and there was a reduced level of fighting while we were working on our activity. (Which is priceless, as most moms will vouch for.)
Final Verdict of Kool Aid tie dye?
Here’s my take on it.
- ‘A’ for kid-friendliness.
- ‘A’ for killing time and focusing them on a creative/new activity.
- ‘B-’ for time commitment (about 20 hours from start to finish…most of it was just letting it sit there. I didn’t mind that so much, but the kids were excited to wear the final product.)
- ‘D’ for disappointment after final washing
- ‘F’ for an overall failed outcome
- Bottom Line: Use something more permanent, like RIT dye.
To make a Heart, Star or Spiral Tie Dye Patterns:
In my prowling of the internet, I came across a guy named Steven. I am going to regard him as the Tie Dye Guru. You can check out his work and tutorials here. I used his super helpful video tutorials to walk me through the heart pattern, and the star pattern. The spiral pattern is credited to Alvaro Fernandez (from ExpertVillage) on YouTube.
Heart Pattern Tutorial:
These are my images for tie dying a heart:
Star Pattern Tutorial:
These are my images for tie dying a star:
Spiral Pattern Tutorial:
And my images for the spiral pattern too:
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All three shirts...sitting and waiting.