Tie Dye Party Table

In May, the United Methodist Women's group at my church is holding a fundraiser brunch for ladies and girls. They've asked for volunteers to each take one table and decorate it in a fun theme, with some related party favors for the attendees.

I was asked to do a table, and naturally, someone suggested that my table should be tie dye themed. I decided to run with a slightly broader theme, the groovy 60's, (well, as much of the 60's as would be appropriate for a church brunch. LOL.) 

Semi precious chip necklaces.

First off, I decided everyone needed some cool beads, so I dug out my much neglected jewelry making supplies, and made some long, beaded necklaces out of semi precious chips. They're theme appropriate, but also, they're actually pretty and wearable. (I have some I wear, anyway.)

I went to the party store, and picked up some cute lollipops and buttons.

Tie dyed bandannas.

I tie dyed some bandannas, (to be used as 'do rags or head bands.)

Record bowl full of party favors.

I made some record bowls to hold everyone's goodies, which also included some fun stickers and the covered notebooks I blogged about recently.

Hobby Lobby had some adorable plates on sale, so I made a tiered cupcake stand with a dollar store candle stick.

They'll hold "tie dyed" cupcakes in tie dyed patterned liners, packaged to go, since they're apparently already serving dessert. (They're shown here unfrosted, before I pop them into the freezer for later.)

Tie dye themed party table.

I did a little trial run of the table to see how everything looked. (The table was cute, the background of my demolished kitchen in the midst of the remodel was terrible.) The place mats are made of laminated wrapping paper. The empty Starbucks bottles have a strip of the tie dyed paper glued on, and will hold a flower at each place. Apparently the church will be using their own dishes and tablecloths, in case you're wondering why I didn't use any.

I was a little nervous about doing this, since I have no idea what kind of themes everyone else has come up with, but it was fun to plan.

Tie Dyed Kitchen Towels

Tie dyed flour sack kitchen towel.

We got a break in the weather yesterday, and the kiddos spent all afternoon playing in the sandbox on the back porch. As a result, I found myself with a few hours in which I could do something fun.

Here are a few of the pieces I made.

Another tie dyed flour sack kitchen towel.

Yep, another tie dyed flour sack kitchen towel.

Tie dyed flour sack kitchen towel, numero quatro.

 These were made using the white flour sack kitchen towels from Dollar Tree, and a cheap fiber reactive dye kit I picked up at Big Lots, of all places. (I've said it before, but if you want really vibrant colors, you have to buy dye from Dharma Trading Company. There's no substitute. These turned out ok, though.)

I'll be giving these out as Christmas gifts. People love them, and ask for them from year to year. They're a quirky, inexpensive, useful gift.

Easy Tie Dyed Dress

I keep seeing pretty white sun dresses at the stores. I guess they're really "in" right now, but who's wearing them? My kids think I'm their own personal napkin, kleenex, and all around clean up accessory. White clothes aren't very practical for me.

I picked up this white dress at Ross a couple of weeks ago for around $13.

And gave it a super quick, one color dose of tie dye.

Much Better.

In Which We Accidentally Endorse Target

I'd been feeling like maybe V had been on the receiving end of most of my crafting lately, so I decided to whip up something for L. I told him I was going to tie dye him a shirt and some underwear, in his favorite color, red. I let him tell me what design he wanted, he said "big circles."

He was thoroughly impressed when they were finished. It was only when I saw him wearing them that I realized he looked like a walking billboard for Target. 

Oh well. We like Target...  :)

One of a Kind $7 Shirt

A while back, I was checking out the clearance racks at Target, when I came upon a couple of cotton tunics at 75% off. They were pretty enough as they were, but I couldn't help thinking they'd be even better tie dyed.

I finally got around to dyeing this one, in bright turquoise. As tie dye goes, you can't get much easier than this:  a couple of evenly spaced rubber bands across the bottom of the shirt, dunked in a single color of dye for several hours.

I love the way it turned out.

Curtain Makeover

Our bedroom is easily the most decoratively neglected room in the house. It's small, filled with purely functional pine furniture, and beige muslin curtains. Painting our room is and has been on our mile long to do list, but somehow, something more important always pops up. In the meantime, I decided to introduce at least a little bit of color.


First I tie dyed the plain Ikea Muslin curtains.











Inexplicably, one of them dyed considerably darker than the other. That's the thing about dyeing a matching set of anything...you never know if it's really going to match. (Although, you'll note that I went through pretty painstaking efforts to ensure that the stripes sort of matched up. haha.) Husband says these look fine, but they're going to rub me the wrong way every time I look at them. Eventually, I'll probably replace them, and repurpose the fabric...



I also dyed the muslin curtains that I had made to cover the closet door. These actually dyed pretty evenly, and I think I like them.







(Note the sagging curtain rod in this one. I can't get the kids to quit hiding in my closet. V's hiding behind the curtain here...)



The jury's still sort of out on this one. Craft success or craft fail?

WFMW: Recycle Your Crib and Bassinet Sheets into Something Useful

I was sorting through some stuff recently, when I came across some white crib and bassinet sheets, mostly unused, since both kids ended up cosleeping with us.
I started thinking about what I could do with them, besides donating them, and realized that the crib sheet fits nicely on the picnic table, and the bassinet sheet fits on the kids' little picnic table. This solves the problem of eating off a dusty table, as well as the problem of the wind blowing the tablecloth to the ground when you aren't looking.
I think this would also be great for picnics at the park, where the tables are notoriously icky.



And yes, I tie dyed mine, because I basically can't ever leave well enough alone. It's hereditary, I think...

For lots more Works For Me Wednesday tips, check out http://www.wearethatfamily.com/.

Dyeing Thrift Store Finds

I love to scavenge Goodwill for white, tie dye-able stuff for me and the kids. The results are always one of a kind, and also cheap, which is a plus.


(If you're new to tie dyeing, you'll want to check out Dharma Trading Company, for the best dye you can buy, as well as the details on how to get started.)


When thrifting for stuff to dye, you'll be looking for cotton, rayon, linen, silk, or some combination thereof. No synthetics.


You''ll also want to watch for stains. If you're going for a bright, multicolored effect, you can probably cover up most stains, but if you're going to be dying the item a single color, or a couple of light colors, the stain might still be visible.


Here are a couple of Goodwill shirts I've recently dyed for myself.









Pretty cool, right, as long as you don't count the awful pictures. :)

Single Color Tie Dye

In direct contrast to my usual style, I've been doing some muted, single color tie dye lately. This is the super easy stuff that you learn to do at summer camp, but for some reason I'm really liking it right now.


Here's a picture of some fabric I made. I really like the color, but haven't decided what to make with it yet.





I also made a set of pillowcases for our bed.



The fold it, tie it, throw it in a bucket of dye method is a lot less messy than the multicolor direct application method. That's definitely a plus too.

Tie Dye Training Pants

V is such a girly girl. I'm not much on enforcing gender roles in general, and specifically on children, so it's nothing I've done. She's just wired differently than L.
I'm proud to say that V is potty training, which means that for the first time in 5 years, I have NO children in diapers. It's pretty fantastic, actually.
There is one problem. V is tiny. I can't find any underwear that really fit her. The closest I've come is the size 2T Gerber training pants, which mostly fit, after I've shrunk them as much as possible. But she wants pretty, big girl underwear, not plain old white ones.
I rummaged around in the garage, until I found some dye in her favorite color, pink. I made some super quick scrunch and bullseye folds, and threw them in the dye for a few hours.



The results, while simple, are a hit. She loves the new pink big girl panties.



Cool huh?

I may go back later, when I have more time and energy to devote to the project, and do some more elaborate, multicolored ones. For now though, she's happy, and anything I can do to get her on board with potty training is a ok with me.

My Psychedelic Masterpiece

After making this quilt last year out of concert t shirts, I started saving cast off shirts for future projects.
I've got quite a stack of them now, and I made this little blanket out of my old tie dye shirts. (Why do I have so many tie dye shirts? I tie dye everything, remember. )

This blanket is basically throw sized, and I'm going to put it away to give to V for Christmas this year. I'm thinking I'll also make her a matching doll blanket, since she is obsessed with swaddling her babies.

I backed the blanket with soft denim. It was finished in about a day, and I didn't have to buy anything for it. I even already had the quilt batting.
Cool, huh?

Tie Dyed Stocking

After making the kids their Yo Gabba Gabba stockings, I decided hubby and I needed to upgrade our generic red fuzzy ones to something that was more "us". This is the one I made myself. :)

I made it out of a scrub top I had tie dyed and worn while I was pregnant, which is mercifully too big now. I love how it turned out. Now I'm thinking this might be a fun thing to offer in the Etsy shop next year.

Stay tuned for more stockings in the next couple of days...

WFMW: Cheap, Cool Generic Gifts to Make

Several years ago, I had me first handmade Christmas, where I made most of the gifts. I figured I'd try it out, and see how it was received.

People loved it, even the teenagers who never like anything, and the kids who already have everything.

Since then, I make most of my gifts, excepting certain people who won't appreciate them, and people for whom I have some particular store bought thing in mind.

I spend a lot of time, and energy, and sometimes money making things for my kids, and a few other people, but sometimes you need something quick and easy for neighbors, co workers, church friends, distant relatives, and random gift exchanges. (Read: fairly generic adult gifts.)


Today I thought I'd share some of the quick, easy, (and cool,) things I've made that have gone over well.

People love crocheted or knitted cotton dishcloths. They really are nicer to use, and people get all nostalgic about how their grandma used to have them. A single crochet or garter stitch square is about as easy of a beginner project as you can get. They're fast too. A couple of them packaged up in ribbon makes a nice, useful, inexpensive gift.

Along the same lines, a simple knitted or crocheted scarf, especially if you use a classic color like black or camel, and make it out of wool is a nice gift for a man or a woman. You could make it of on sale Patons yarn for under ten bucks.







Need a lot of cool assembly line gifts? Buy some fiber reactive dye. Dharma trading company is the best, but you can also get good result with the kits from the craft store. They're regular $10 or $20 dollars, and with a 40% off coupon, (you will use the coupon, right?) they're a really good deal. Now go to the dollar store, and buy some of the large, 100% cotton flour sack dish towels.Prewash the towels, (don't skip this step,) and tie dye dye them. Even if you've never tie dyed before, they'll turn out cool. (Seen in photos above.)

Other cool, easy things to tie dye are hankies, (100% cotton, from the dollar store,) tote bags, (regular $1.49 at Hobby Lobby, but they're frequently on sale for 50% off), and socks (as close to 100% as you can find, something like 80% cotton/20% whatever else.)

Melt and pour soaps are easy, easy, easy, and everyone loves em. Use that 40% craft store coupon to buy the melt and pour base, or the kit. Now go to the dollar store, and buy little plastic bugs, or army men, or teeny toy cars that will fit in your mold. Make your soap as directed, adding in the trinkets. Package them up in cellophane.

For more WFMW posts, check out www.wearethatfamily.com.

You learn something new every day...

I've been tie dyeing for several years, but never ventured much into shapes. Yesterday, I learned how to do this. Cool huh? Now I'm trying to think of more stuff to try.

New Tie Dye

I've been doing some more dyeing for the Etsy shop. Check it out.

Purple Fairy Princess Costume

Yesterday I finished baby V's Halloween costume. She's going to be a little purple fairy princess. I got the wings and tutu from the Dollar Tree. (I should seriously be on their payroll, as much as I talk about them...) I could have made both myself I suppose, but this was a huge time and money saver. I purchased the little wand at Target, in the Dollar Section. They had crowns too, but V won't wear one, which is why I had thought about making her a purple felt crown, and then decided against it. She'll be wearing a purple bow, if I can get her to leave it in. I tie dyed the onesie and cotton tights, which we already had.
My total cash outlay for the costume was $3, plus tax.







Stay tuned. We're going to be making a Transformers Optimus Prime costume for L, also partly out of Dollar Tree components.