Day 4 Gymnastics Camp Crafts

Tie Dye Shirts! 

No, not real dye, SPRAY tie dye!  Did you think I was going to get involved in rinsing and wringing out almost 50 T-shirts again in 98 degree heat?  NO WAY!!!!

 

The purple and blue are our favorites.  Even with coupons for Hobby, Lobby, Joann's, and Michael's, this is a more expensive craft, so I tried to get by with just enough.  Just enough, however, is not enough.  Next time I will buy several extra cans and save the receipts in hopes of returning a few.  As it is, I will be getting some more cans and taking them to regular Gymnstics team practice, because we ran out of paint during the last group.  Learn from my mistake!

Our methodology is to lay the shirt on the ground/newspaper/cardboard, scrunch it around and spray color 1.  Then pull it open, scrunch in a different direction and sray with color 2.

If the shirt has a logo on it, spray it anyway!

Reserved for the boys:  camo set!

I loved it that quite a few children showed up the next day wearing their newly decorated shirts.



Last Tie Dye of the Summer

This has turned out to be the Summer of Tie-Dye.  I've tie-dyed with Sm'Arties, family friends, Gymnastics Camp, and now one last Gymnastics Camp. 

It was hot out there.  Again.  I wound up with wrinkled blue fingers.  Again.  But the children LOVED it!  And so do I.

Right after our last Gym camp, when my fingers were still cramping from wringing T-shirts, Earthgirl had a friend over, and she arrived wearing a tie-dyed BANDANA made at another camp.  Bandanas!  Easy rinsing and wringing, and space-saving!  I determined immediately that my next group tie-dye would feature bandanas.  This worked out doubly well, since some of the children from Session 1 returned for Session 2.  Hobby Lobby has nice, big bandanas for $1.  If you have a 40%-off coupon, your first bandana costs only $.60.  Woo woo!

We tie-dyed with 49 children.  Wowee, if we had used all T-shirts, I'd still be rinsing and wringing now!

Tulip's Turquoise was our favorite color.  Almost all the bandanas were dyed blue.

Lesson learned from my first experience using bandanas:  Since they are not as squashy as T-shirts, they should be tied up really tight, or the dye seeps in and none of the lines will be really sharp and white.  The ones in the picture above appear to be solid blue, but they all turned out well. 

Bandanas would also be great used with the spray "tie-dye."  We used this to "tie-dye" T-shirts at Earthgirls 7th birthday party, the 70s party, and it is easy. 

The teens did T-shirts again.  While the younger groups get only 1 dunk (it's all we can do to get the whole group finished as it is), the teens have free rein to get creative and dye all afternoon if they want to.  Of course, they do their own rinsing and wringing. (Rinse and wring, rinse and wring - doesn't that phrase just sing in your head?)  The teens did some purty shirts.

So now the question arises:  Should I tie-dye bandanas with the Sm'Arties?  Maybe in November!

Crafts at Gymnastics Camp - Day 2 - Tie Dye

How have I become the Tie Dye Queen?  I did not set out to be the one who always has wrinkled purple fingers ...

Day 2 each child brought in a white shirt, and we tie-dyed. We used rubber bands and marbles, tied straight horizontal lines, sunbursts, and circles.  (Note for the future:  Some of the under-6 crowd have no idea how to stretch a rubber band around something.  Now I remember - my daughter could not do ponytails herself until she was about 7 years old.  If not for the 3 teenage helpers with this group, we would have taken all day.)

The dying table.  When I tie-dyed with 7 children, we did some multi-color shirts.  With almost 30, we dunked each shirt in 1 color only.  I've used Rit, Dylon, and Tulip fabric dyes.  I think we like Tulip best.  The colors are bright and seem to fade less.  Their Turquoise was a favorite.

It was also water day.  That's good planning.

This is the shirt that nearly ran us out of marbles.  We had to rinse, wring, and undo several shirts so that Groups 3 and 4 could put their shirts together. (See my red face?  We had some record June temps last week.  It was hot, hot hot! )

 We put the shirts under the solar clothes dryer.

I have tie-dyed twice this year with smaller groups.  It is a lot of work to do this with big groups.  The rinsing and wringing seem unending!  My fingers are still cramping.  I think, "No way! Not again!"  And then parents start telling me how this was their child's favorite craft, and I know I'll do it again. 

Real Tie Dye

Before - plain white T-shirt...

During:  Rubberband "ties" to make a pattern...

"I regret that I have but one life to give for my homeschool mini-co-op."

During: First bunny ears of the day...

During:  Woo...careful with the red stuff...

After:  Ta-Da!!!!

OK, here are pictures of everybody else:

Our 2 girls brought tank tops.  One is tied for horizontal stripes; the other has marbles tied up to make white circles in the finished product.

We think this one looked like a mermaid. It swam around a bit.

Some get dunked all the way; others are clothespinned to the side so only the sunbursts get color.

"Rinse, wring, repeat."

 - song of the rinse squad.

That Science Geek wields a mean sprayer.

Waiting for the big reveal.

Ta da!!!!!

More bunny ears, and a side sunburst.

Best "I remember the 70's" shirt.

Takes a while to get all those rubber bands out.

Almost all our shirts are 2-color.  This summer when I do tie dye with Gymnastics camp, all shirts will be one color only - takes too much time and work to do 2-color with a bigger group.

Double bunny ears!

Tie dye - it's not just for T-shirts.  This was a very light denim skirt.  Now it is turquoise and green.

After being wrung out twenty 'leven times, will it ever be short enough again?

Is there no escape from bunny ears?

Birthday Boy

Finally free from bunny ears!

I can't resist - Here is Keisuzi teaching her last IEW class of the school year.

I think we're all relaxing a little.

Being the birthday boy does not exempt one from bunny ears.

Mini-Co-op Justice League!