I needed some extra fabric for the previously mentioned "Easiest Quilt Ever and I thought tie dying would be really fun. I had bought a few dry dye packets months ago for 25 cents a box!! Now I ask you who could pass up a deal like that?! There were so many parts of this quilt that my daughter couldn't do that I thought this would be a great team effort. I didn't think dipping would work because she really likes things to be precise, and a bunch of muddy, overlaying colors would probably just tick her off. We didn't have any squirt bottles (despite my husband's three store attempts) to do it that way. Finally I decided to mix up bits of the dye in bowls and just paint the fabric with regular paint brushes. The two bottom pictures are our fabric strips after being "tied" up with rubber bands and then painted. The green, blue and white fabric was simply painted in a late 80's homage :). I let the dyed fabrics sit out and soak in on the line over night. I washed them out in cold water in a bucket the next day, then washed them in the laundry. I have to say that the first ones we painted (thankfully the quilt strips) retained the most color. They turned out beautifully. One of the ones I tried was a synthetic fabric, and , not only did it not soak up the dye as well, but I think it muddied the washer a bit. As a result, the larger pieces turned out with a grey cast to the white areas. The quilt strips are great though- and that was what I was going for. All in all this was a great project- it was tons of fun!! I would definitely reccomend wearing rubber gloves while painting. If only they would invent those in kid sizes!
