Otherwise known as TK releases her cooped up inner artist and has lots of fun with color.
I felt like a kid in a candy store making these. There's a round one and a round two, but here's the whole grouping first.
There are three from round one, in which we didn't really saturate the shirts with dye, and there's quite a bit of white left. Also, you'll note that my tank is 100% cotton, and DH and DS' shirts are a poly blend, and the colors on their shirts is less vibrant because of that. I highly recommend if you're going to do this, spring for an all cotton shirt. They're easy enough to find. Now, on DS and my tank, the Mickey heads didn't come out so great. So I went back in with bleach and a paint brush and tried to outline them. What I didn't realize is that you only really need a little bit of bleach, and so we got some interesting effects.
Here's the front and back of DS' first shirt.
And here's what it looked like after I redefined the Mickey head. I've sent these images to my mom, and this is is her favorite shirt of the whole bunch. I think it's adorable, and DS LOVES it! Both of them actually, which is great.
Not perfect, but not too shabby, right? I can't tell you how much my inner perfectionist is dying a little inside with these shirts.
See, I love the tie dye, the vibrant color, the messiness of it all. But I wanted those Mickey heads to be perfect. They're not. And such is life.
Here's my first shirt front and back.
And after I redefined the Mickey head. A little too much, but hey, it's a learning process. That's what I keep telling myself, anyway.
Here's DH's. He's opted to leave his alone, and I'm not pushing. Even though it kills me. It's his shirt.
Now after we had this set, we had leftover dye. And it needs to be used up within two weeks. Yeah. That didn't last long.
I grabbed the only other white tank I had and an old 100% cotton undershirt of DS' and went to town.
Here's the results of round two.
I really feel like I need to get at this, but I'm looking for one of those bleach pens. I find a Tide to Go pen at Walmart, but I don't think that's going to cut it. It doesn't say bleach on it. I really want the fine point, I'm afraid if I try to go at this with a paint brush it'll be way too much white. I'm not sure. Maybe I'll try. If I'm brave.
And here's DS' shirt.
I love, love, love the saturation of color on this one. On both mine and his in the secound round. The key to this level of color is using a lot of dye. Basically, when you squeeze it, you make sure you get it into the folds, and you want the dye to be literally dripping off of the shirt. Now, I have no idea why the Mickey heads on both my tanks have white blotches. I dyed them both thoroughly. I don't know if it's the fabric, or the way I'm rinsing them at the end, or maybe even when they are in the washing machine.
I'll definitely be posting these on the tie dye thread though, and see if anyone can give me any suggestions. If any of you are even considering this, that's a very supportive and fun group over there, I highly recommend taking a look at it. I posted the link not to long ago, I think.
So there you have it.
Upon which, Mom said...you can make me one of those if I can find a white t-shirt I like.
I so did this
but I kept it cool. On the down low. I'm excited! More dye! More shirts! More matching.
I know I could get my FIL to wear one. Next I just have to wear down Nana and my dad.
Yeah.
Ri-ight.
And on as side note...now I really feel like we belong at Pop Century.