Tie-Dye Cleaning Rags – A Pretty Happy Home

Earlier this week I declared a “stay at home fun day.”

This is mom-speak for “we need to stay at home and do some laundry or we will be starting a nudist colony soon.”

However, my kids took my declaration literally. They expected us to have fun and for me to provide the entertainment.

Luckily, my daughter had received a tie-dye kit for her birthday. I had been ~~procrastinating~~ saving it for such a day as this.

The tie-dye kit included a tote bag to tie-dye.

My daughter then asked me what a tote bag was.

We were off to a great start.

Thankfully, the kit also included plenty of dye, so both my kids were able to experience the world of tie-dye. I just needed something extra for the kids to tie-dye, so I grabbed two, old cleaning rags.

We wrapped them up with the leftover rubber bands and this is the result:

These rags were leftover cloth diapers/burp rags from when the kids were babies. They started out white, but over the years have become a slightly dingier shade of white.

Look at them now though!

They are so darn happy looking I almost want to clean something.

Almost.

I think the tie-dye breathed some new life into these old rags though!

I also let the kids each pick an old shirt to tie-dye. My daughter picked an orange one with polka-dots that she never wears. My son picked a yellow tank that had been stained with who knows what.

He was concerned that his gloves were too big. I told him that was part of the “fun.”

We used ALL 3 bottles of dye that came with the kit and their meticulous work netted two fun, new shirts for summer!

As you can see, I went to a lot of work to get all of the wrinkles out for this photoshoot. When I was in college I actually interned on a photoshoot for a retailer. My job was to steam the wrinkles out of the clothes that were to be photographed on the models. Um, yeah. That’s when I learned that I’m really not a perfectionist!

I think I actually like my son’s tank better now with the bright tie-dye effect.

Plus, it covered that pesky stain right up!

So, if you’re looking for something fun to do with the kids this summer, give tie-dye a whirl! The kids were happy and content for the 45 minutes we spent on this project. The hardest part was waiting for the dye to set and then for their creations to be washed. Good thing we were doing laundry that day!