Underpants!!!
Now that I've got your attention, who here has tried dying things before–show of hands please.
Hmmm, not many of you out there, I see. Never fear! Long Beach Craft Mafia got the opportunity to test out some new Tulip brand dye products recently. After the jump, see how easy it is to get into making something unique and enter to win some of our projects and Tulip brand goodies.
]
Four of us embarked on the Tulip Dye Adventure that day: yours truly, Liz Abbott of Leatherette Heart, Lexi Lee of Little Bit, and Tamara Zielinski of Crayon Fawn. At our disposal? Three new dye products from Tulip: their Dye Techniques Kit, Custom Color Dye Kit, and Fabric Spray Paint.
I have to tell you that these gals all had dying experience before, while I was a total newbie; I was more than a little nervous. What if I couldn't measure up?
As the night progressed, I quickly got over it – these dye kits are so easy to use it takes all the trepidation out of the equation and just makes it stress-free and fun.
Your first order of business when dyeing should always be preparing the garment you'll be working with. In this case, we put cardboard inside the garments so the ink wouldn't bleed through to the other side. You may also want to get your workspace ready – trashbags taped to a table in the garage did the trick nicely for us.
Our group started with creating a batch of “Dreamsicle” peach-colored dye using the Custom Dye Color Kit–follow the included color chart and you can pretty much make any color known to man! Lexi Lee of Little Bit broke in the dye pot with a pair of white canvas sneakers:
Tamara Zielinski offered these insights into the Custom Dye Color Kit:
“The kit that involved the dye bath on the stove was more time consuming and probably better to do solo unless everyone agrees on what color they want to dye their stuff… It's a great kit to have on hand if you plan on dying a lot of different items. The color options are seemingly endless, and the color chart is the most exciting thing.”
We tried dyeing a tank top that had an existing screenprint on it, and it came out pretty cool– the screenprint is still very clear, but everything is tinted that dye color. This tank happened later on in the night when we shifted from Dreamsicle to a much brighter pink, which is another cool thing – with some careful planning you can make different dye colors as you progress, by adding a little more of this color or that color to your existing dye. This means less wasted product, which is always good for the wallet.
On the next page, we get a bit experimental.
[
Long Beach Craft Mafia tried out some things from Tulip's Dye Techniques Kit which were really fun that night, also. I drew some squiggly lines on the bottom of a light blue tank top using the Tulip Resist that comes in the kit, and then dipped it in the Dreamsicle dye we had mixed earlier. The resist blocks the dye from the fabric, and it resulted in this great batik-style sage green tank top with light blue squiggles:
Tamara Zielinski used the tie dye directions and supplies included to create that fab pair of underwear you saw at the beginning of the post. It was as simple as balling up the underwear and wrapping them with a rubberband, then dipping them in the Dreamsicle-colored dye.
But by far the fan favorite of our dye party was the Fabric Spray Paint—on the next page, take a look at what you can do with it!
[
I'm not sure if it was the instant gratification factor, or the more random, unexpected results when using it, but all of our Long Beach Craft Mafia members gravitated towards Tulip's Fabric Spray Paint during our dye party. Lexi Lee's reaction sums it up perfectly: “My favorite item was the spray dye for sure. It was fun and easy to use, and we made some great things.”
The spray paints are available in packs of 4 as well as singles. We used the bright neon colors along with black in conjunction with a stack of stencils I bought at Ikea years ago and haven't ever opened. It was so easy – put down a stencil, spray some ink, done. You can get different effects depending on how you spray it as well – using a steady pressure produces something more fine (and refined, perhaps?) while only squeezing the plunger halfway produces a more sputtery, splattery effect.
Tamara had the great idea of masking off some stripes using 2″ painter's tape, and then she spray painted different colors for each stripe – the effect was so cool when it was finished!
On the next page, check out some of our final products and enter to win them!
[
In all, we had a blast at our dye party – I think we all learned some new techniques and I hope you did, too! Any of these Tulip kits would be great for folks of all ages, with supervision recommended for youngsters (so you don't end up with a Dreamsicle-colored spot on your carpet!). Thanks so much to Tulip for giving Long Beach Craft Mafia a chance to try this stuff out and for providing part of this week's Gettin' Made giveaway prize!
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
It's so easy to enter – leave a comment telling us what you think and you'll be automatically entered to win one of these three great prizes. Have you dyed before, do you plan on trying this stuff out, are you a little less scared? More scared?
Comment as much as you like but only one entry per person will be counted – if you won anything in the last 30 days you'll be ineligible so others have a chance at awesomeness! Contest closes Friday, September 25 at midnight.
***
For more information about Long Beach Craft Mafia, visit their website or follow them on Twitter. Want to see more photos from the dye party? Check out their Flickr page.
Tulip Fashion Art products are produced by Duncan. For more information, visit www.ilovetocreate.com.
