For Lydia's 7th birthday, I needed a easy outdoor craft. And hooray for pinterest, I found this tutorial on dyeing fabric with sharpie pens. These turned out great and the girls loved making them.
What we used:
- Sharpie pens (I used the standard fine-tips ones, the ultra-fine didn't bleed enough)
- cotton fabric (I used muslin I had on hand)
- rubbing alcohol
- eyedroppers and small paint brushes
- embroidery hoops
- fresh air (these are very stinky)
- drying time (not long in the sun, about 20 minutes)
How we did it:
I had the kids draw a design with sharpie first, repetitive images and patterns worked best. They did this flat on the table onto the fabric directly, outside, because this project is stinky and there is much stain potential. A drop cloth was mandatory. Then we placed the fabric in the hoops, tightened them up, and stared dripping drops of rubbing alcohol with droppers (a brush worked, too) and let the colors bleed together. This was the fun part. Dripping the alcohol while the fabric is in the hoop keeps the pieces from back-staining and up off the table.
We let them dry while doing a scavenger hunt and then trimmed off the extra fabric from the back, tied them with yarn, and they took them home as party favors.
They all turned out so pretty, they were very proud of them! The ages were 6-11 and they all did amazing work.
