Saturday 27 June 2015

DIY: Tie-Dye T-Shirts and Body Chain and Competition

With Summer now in full swing what better than to do a little Summery DIY for you guys! Also everything I made for this post will be given away to some lucky readers so keep an eye out on my Facebook page for the details coming up soon!

These DIYs are simple and easy to do, and the Tie Dye one is so much fun to do with some friends, but be sure to wear clothes that you don't mind getting the dye on!


Tie-Dye T-Shirts

What you'll need:


1. Packets of fabric dye in whatever colour you like. I used the Dylon Dye for Hand Use which I got in Hickey's fabric shop and it comes in a great range of colours. I used a pinky-red, blue, green and yellow. (You can get die in most fabric or craft shops and ebay actually sells full tie-dye kits if you're willing to pay more for them.)

2. Plastic bottles with the pull up sports tip to put the dye in.  
3. T-shirts, dresses or any other item of clothing really. (Tie-dye works best on 100% cotton so keep this in mind.)
4. String/Rubber bands. (Rubber bands are easier to use if you can get them) 
5. Some plastic sandwich bags.
6. Somewhere open to do the dying
7. And some old newspapers to lay out so you don't get dye everywhere. 

DIY Body Chain


What you'll need:

1. Old necklaces/Pendants that you don't wear anymore. Or necklace chain/cable. (You can buy this on Amazon.)
2. Wire snips cutters. (If you're dad is anything like mine you should have loads of these lying around in his little DIY tool kits.) 
3. Charms if you'd like to put charms on it. 
4. Those little ring things that hold necklaces together and hold the charms onto them. (Sorry I have no idea what they're called, if anyone does feel free to tell us in the comments!) 

So first off, the tie-dye t-shirts! I'm going to show you two methods of Tie-Dye, the Spiral and the Bullseye!


** For both you're going to need to follow the instructions on the dye packets to make up the dye, it's usually add hot water and table salt to the dye mix, and then pour the dye into the plastic bottles. **



These are the t-shirts I used. Both are from Penneys/Primark. 


1. The Spiral


Step 1. Grab a t-shirt, preferably 100% cotton because the dye works best with it. (One of the tshirts I dyed had 95% cotton 5% elastine and while it dyed the dye didn't soak all the way through, but it thankfully ended up turning out really cool!) 


Step 2. Lie the t-shirt flat out on a table


Step 3: Pinch the t-shirt where you want the spiral to start (usually near the middle) as shown below. 

Step 3.


Step 4: Twist the t-shirt so it's in a spiral. If you use a round table and walk around the table its easier to get the twist in shape. Try do it as tight as possible. It should look something like this: 
Twist the t-shirt.
(Sorry about the dirty looking garden furniture, it's been outside all winter!)



It should look something like this when you've finished.


Step 5: Tie the twist into place. Rubber bands are easier  to use, I used string because it was all that I had but its easier to keep the spiral in place by using rubber bands. When tied should look something like this: 




Start by tying around the shirt once and then go around it in each direction.



It should look something like this. 
Step 6: Die all of the segments with your coloured dye. (Or alternatively, you can dye in a spiral shape following the spiral shape of the tshirt.) Make sure to get as much dye on the tshirt as possible and absolutely saturate it with dye to get the best results. 
1



2


3



4

Step 7: Put the t-shirt in a plastic zip lock sandwich bag and leave it out in the sun all day and over night (I'm not sure why but I was told this helps the dye soak in better or something) 

Image ft John's hand


Step 8: You can now rinse out the dye. Rinse the t-shirt in the sink and make sure the water runs clear. 


Step 9: Spin the t-shirt in the washing machine to get out the excess water. 


Step 10: Dry the t-shirt and it's ready to wear. 

Spiral T-shirt finished. 


*TIP: Hand wash the t-shirt the first few times to make sure the dye doesn't run, after 1 or 2 more washes it should be safe to put in the washing machine with similar dark coloured clothing.* 


2. The Bullseye:


Step 1 and Step 2: As above. 


Step 3: Pinch the t-shirt where you want the centre of the bullseye to be. (See below) 





Step 4: Pull the t-shirt up by the pinched part and tie off sections down along the t-shirt as shown below. 








Step 5: Tie off the t-shirt in sections. (See below)


Step 6: Dye each section of the t-shirt again making sure its saturated in dye.


Repeat steps 7 to 10 from above. 



Bullseye t-shirt finished. It didn't die through
because of the elastine but it turned out cool
in the end.


And voila there you go some cool tie dyed t-shirts, perfect for summer festivals. Try this out with different pieces of clothing like dresses or beach cover-ups for some really cool new additions to your summer wardrobe. 


If  you want to be in with a chance of winning one of the t-shirts featured on here be sure to keep an eye out on my Facebook page for details here.


Now for the body chain: 

The old neckalaces I used.


Snips to use to open and close the joining rings.


Daddy's tool kit with the wire cutter snips you'll need something
like these. 


Step 1: If your using old necklaces like me, open them out so that you have the chains on their own not attached to anything else. (See below) 





Step 2: Measure a length of chain from the middle of the back of your neck down to the middle of your chest. (This is where you'll be putting the charm if you use one or you could be following what I done) 

Measure it to the middle of your stomach.


Measure the chain from the back of your neck


Step 3: Repeat this on the other side.


Step 4: Join the two pieces of chain together with one of the joining rings. 

It should look like this when they're joined together 


Step 5a: If you're putting a charm in the middle, put a charm onto the end of the two pieces that come down and rest in the middle of your chest. (If you're using a charm you might want to make the first two lengths a bit longer like to about the bottom of your rib cage or so) 


Step 5b: If like me you're using more pieces of chain with charms on it, join this piece of chain to the other two chains and let this piece reach to about your belly button or a little below it. Again join it together with the rings. 





Step 6: Measure a piece of chain from the middle of the back of your neck right down to the base of your back. (See below) 



Step 7: Measure some chain lengths from either the charm or the chain in the middle of your stomach around your side right around to meet with the chain going down your back. Join it at both sides with the rings. Repeat on the other side. (See below) 








Make sure all the rings are tightened good and tight by using the wire cutting snips. (Just be careful to not actually break the rings) Aaaaand there ya go an easy to make hand made body chain that should look something like this: 






I hope you enjoyed this blog. 

Until the next time, 

MK xo 



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