Bloggy Olympics Event #4: Crafting

For the fourth event in the Bloggy Olympics I have decided to make tie-dyed t-shirts for William. I made him one for the 4th of July and one for his 1st Birthday coming up in August! 

I’ve tie-dyed shirts before but it was probably 10+ years ago at girl scout camp, so I was really excited about doing this again 🙂 

 I bought one of those tie-dye kits at Wal-mart and got to work as soon as William went to bed for the night. For his 4th of July tank I did a spiral pattern with red and blue dye, and for his Birthday shirt I did a folded pattern with yellow, green, and blue dye. 

I got him a tank top for his 4th of July shirt, and a regular t-shirt for his Birthday shirt. I think the tank top is my favorite 🙂 

I love the Tulip tie-dye kit I got because it has everything you need to do a tie-dye project. It even came with the rubber bands and plastic gloves so you don’t turn your hands colors 🙂 and it has really easy to follow directions. I finished both shirts in under 30 minutes; I was kinda bummed it didn’t take very long 🙁

 You want to pre-wash your shirt WITHOUT fabric softener, and as soon as the washer is done you can start tie-dying.

 For William’s 4th of July shirt I did a spiral pattern. Just pinch the shirt where you want the center of the spiral to be and twist it into a flat circle. Once it is twisted wrap it into six sections with 3 rubber bands ( I doubled up my rubber bands).

 For William’s Birthday Shirt, I did a folded pattern so that when it was done it would look like stripes. Basically you fold it like an accordion and then put rubber-bands every few inches.

 The next morning, cut the rubber bands and throw into a washer set on HOT and at the biggest load possible. You want a lot of water in the machine because the extra dye will run. (I washed the two shirts separately so the red wouldn’t ruin the green and yellow)

 Ta-Da! All finished! I love how the swirl one turned out not so perfect(pretty much the best part about tie-dye) and how the stripes look so defined 🙂

I’m going to be linking up to some amazing blogs on Thursday for the 4th event in the Bloggy Olympics! You can head on over to Here’s to Handy Andy, c.w.frosting, or freaking craft to check out all the Bloggy Olympics awesomeness!

UPDATE: Picture’s from the 4th of July! William and I drove down to Houston to see Jeff, and we went to the Museum of Natural Science. It was so much fun! William loved the paleontology exhibit.

 Jeff and William looking at a piece of a petrified tree trunk! William was rocking his awesome tie-dye tank!

 Blurry baby trying to grab the camera 😀

He was so tired by the end of the day!

I’m also linking up to these amazing blogs: