Eco-Tie Dye, working out the kinks

As the summer fades and school starts, kidlet and I are feverishly marking off things on our summer list of things to do.  One neat art project on the list is Eco- Tie Dye Tshirts that we saw on the show Emeril Green.  While we most certainly are cooking show fanatics, Emeril Green is not one of our usual shows.  I happened on this particular episode on Eco- Birthday Parties because of Jenn Savedge of  “The green parent“.   She mentioned on her facebook page that she was featured in this particular Emeril Green show. Did you know that Jenn is a former park ranger? Neat thing I didn’t know about her!  Anyhoo, off to the dvr I went to record the show!  It was a pretty good show on how to create an eco-friendly birthday party.  My favorite section was of course, the eco-tie dye project that immediately was placed on the “to-do this summer” list.

I looked on the green parent site and could not find a specific recipe on eco dyes other than easter eggs.  Let’s face it, eggs and tshirts…different!  I wasn’t smart enough to actually search for Jenn’s clip of the show that can be found here  BEFORE we charged into the project.  This was featured back in April. I sort of wish I had seen it again before we started here in August.  The dyes looked quite familiar though. She used a couple of the spices I use already to color Dr. Flower’s handmade soaps. ( shameless plug but it’s my blog, click here)

She uses spray bottles to apply color. Not us! We used the old fashion “make your own mess” bowls for dipping and rubberbands! How could it be tie dye if you don’t actually tie? One of my favorite phrases is that sometimes you have to make a mess to make something really cool! (with any luck, my kidlet will be sharing that same phrase with her kids.) Rubberbands facilitate motor skills in the hands. *nods lots and grins*

So here’s what we did, we created our dyes with spices and a beet that went thru the juicer. I didn’t boil any of the veggies or spices, just placed them in water. We dipped them in dye and then dipped them in a vinager water solution to help set the color. It didn’t set the color nearly as well as I would have liked. The picture below is what they looked like wet and drying. Once they were washed, the colors went extremely light.  Anyone that reads this and has suggestions on how to best set the colors, I’d love to hear from you!

Happy Washing!

~Regina