Fireworks T-Shirts - A Tie Dye Tutorial

I was asked about the T-Shirts the boys were wearing for the 4th of July party. At Scout's Red-White & Blue Birthday party - we decided to do Tie-Dyed T-shirts as a take home gift instead of a grab bag...

Here's what we did:

1 white cotton T-Shirt for each person
1 box of Red Rit Dye
1 box of Navy Rit Dye
2 cups salt
2 Tablespoons laundry detergent
2 Stainless Steel pots
2 spoons and a pair of rubber of gloves
several rubber bands

Dissolve the two dyes in two separate pots according to the package directions - we used 1 box of dye - 1 cup of salt and 1 Tablespoon of laundry detergent in 4 cups of water in each pot - bring almost to the boil.

Transfer the entire process outside at this point.

Pinch up little knobs of material through both layers of a clean white T-Shirt wherever you want a 'firework' spot - twist a rubber band around this knob about 2 inches in...

...dip the knob into the red dye almost up to the rubber band...

...lightly squeeze or wring out the excess dye - you'll get lots of 'milking the cow' jokes at this point...

...gather all the knobs together at the top and dip the bottom into the navy dye - being careful not to submerge the rubber bands - we don't want any purple and we do want a nice 'flash' of white - you'll get more 'udder' jokes at this point with the knobs all sticking up out of the blue dye...

...show off your creation...

...hang it on a line (or a garden fence) - and hose them down with cold water - the bright colors will lighten somewhat (I've heard there are cold reactive dyes that you can use that will not lighten - but of course they are not available 'locally') - allow shirts to dry...

...don your shirt and line up for a group shot...

...and wear your shirt to the local small town parade and grab as much candy as you can...