How to Tie-Dye T-Shirts

Kids love making tie-dyed shirts.

When we were in high school, my sister and I used to do this quite frequently. Ok, we may or may not have tie-dyed our underwear, too!

Every few years, when the kids outgrow their shirt, we know it’s time to do the craft over again!

Here is what you’ll need

Item to tie-dye: t-shirt, scarf, or yes, underwear! Michaels always has plain cheap t-shirts
Fabric dye – I used to find this in the grocery store, but this year could only find it in Michaels.
Rubber gloves
Elastic bands and/or white string
Buckets and squeeze bottles

These are the best instructions on how to tie-dye

Start by mixing the dye in buckets.

There is a lot of dye in one package, so do not use it all.

When I did this with 15+ children, I only used half the package. If just doing it with a few kids, use 1/4 of the package.

Fill the bucket with warm water and add the powder. I didn’t measure. I just eyeballed it and stirred.

Pour the dye carefully into squeeze bottles.

I got these bottles from the dollarstore. In fact, we also use these bottles in the winter. I fill them with water and food colouring so they can paint the snow. Great supplies to have on hand!

Have the kids prepare their cloth. The link above shows you a few different techniques, but we go for the basic one.

Grab some material and wrap a rubber band around it.

You can also wrap string around the bunches of cloth, and tie it off. It leaves a slightly different pattern. Everywhere the cloth is hidden by the elastic, the material will be clear of dye.

When you have enough elastics in to your liking, you are ready to start dying.