HDT (Hand Dyed Thread)

When we tie-dyed shirts, I wanted to do some thread, too.  I had picked up some cotton thread in size 20 and 30.  I wound off 2 50 yard hanks of each size and then decided to just dye the rest of each ball also (So about 300 yds).

Pre-soak in warm water

Emily dying the thread

Wrapped in Saran Wrap

Emi dying a ball of thread

Waiting for 8 hours

Getting ready to rinse

My small hanks drying

Big balls drying

My 50 yd hanks 

My balls

The Orange/Pink ball was *really* snarled and knotted

The Purple/Green ball wound off pretty freely

It got tiring winding the spools by hand, so I put the spool on my sewing machine

And used my finger to spin the spool to wind the thread

Large spools are Size 30 (Orange/Pink) and Size 20 (Purple/Green)
Small spools are: Left: size 20, Right: size 30

Tie Dye Shirts

One of the things on my summer bucket list was to tie dye shirts with the kids again.  The last time we did it, we did onesies for William!  I had gotten some cotton "crochet thread" that I wanted to dye, also.

This time Walmart had a cheaper dye kit.
(I think we should have used the Tulip brand at least for the blue)

Getting the shirts wet

Waiting is so hard

Dye is all ready

I helped Andy with the first color so he knew how to do it

Dan tried a technique of sandwiching the shirt between 2 boards

Will doesn't know that sometimes "less is more" ☺

We had some extra dye and 2 extra small shirts, so Emi and Andy got an extra

I was doing laundry, so I put the shirts on top of the dryer to "cook" a little

I wound off 50 yard hanks of the thread

Emi helping dye the thread

The hanks of thread all dyed

We still had extra dye, so I soaked the whole rest of the balls of thread and we dyed them, too!

Sitting for 8 hours

My threads

Ready to rinse

Rinse until it runs clear

So pretty!

All rinsed 

I had a sample "color catcher" so I put it in when I washed the shirts.
Look at all the color it "caught"!!

 The blue dye washed almost completely out!!  It was rather disappointing.  Look at the 2 pictures above with them on the edge of the tub to see how nice the blue was before washing!

Dan's shirts

My shirts

Sarah's shirts (Both of hers had blue)

Emily's shirts

Will's shirts

Andy's shirts

The rags we used to wipe up spills, etc.

My hanks of thread drying

Skeins of thread drying