Adventures in Tie Dye

Today we made tie-dyed t-shirts with the 6th graders at school. Believe it or not, these shirts were dyed with house paint! To do it, you just mix a little house paint with a lot of water and put it in a bottle to squeeze it out (we used plastic drink bottles with holes punched in the lids) You twist and rubber band the shirts just like you would for normal tie-dying, then squeeze on the the color on, squoosh it in, and voila! Then you just let the shirt dry completely (it will be crunchy) wash and dry and you have a beautiful tie dye t-shirt. I was really surprised how soft it turned out after it was washed. My cooperating teacher tells me she has been using this method for years and the shirts really hold up well. It's a lot easier to do with kids than real tie dying with reactive dyes and such, since you don't have to soak the shirts and the paints are really easy to use. We had a great time and the kids shirts look great!