While summer officially ends in a few weeks, the unofficial end to summer has always been Labor Day. Well, maybe in today’s world it’s when the PSL returns. This summer, we’ve closed the season with a staycation that included a trip to the Bronx Zoo, ice cream, and tie-dye!
Growing up, I loved having that one last weekend at the lake house before school ramped up. One summer, about a decade ago, we took over the driveway and had a huge tie-dye party. It was a lot of fun and we got a lot of cool shirts out of it. Some of those shirts still live in my closet and I should probably toss now, considering the number of holes they have.
We started thinking about our staycation a few weeks ago. We realized we had not taken a vacation since we started working from home during the pandemic. We needed a vacation. The end of August seemed like a great time to take our staycation. How we would spend our staycation was a different story. Where could we go?
What we love about our neighborhood is we have everything we need within walking distance; parks, restaurants, and ice cream! What we love about living in New York City is there’s so much to do within a day’s drive. We knew we wanted a day trip somewhere, so we planned on going to the Bronx Zoo. For the rest of the time, we just wanted to chill out and do something crafty. Enter our tie-dye plans (and our new podcast).
Tie-Dye the World
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As I said, it’s been a minute since we tie-dyed. And yes, we did all of this while our toddler napping. We tie-dyed on all completely dry shirts. The last time we did this, our wet shirts made our designs too watercolor-y, so we opted for crisp patterns. We also wanted to try something new, reverse tie-dye! But what is reverse tie-dye, you ask?
Here’s what you need:
Reverse Tie-Dye
To reverse tie-dye, use bleach. Twist, roll, and rubber band how you’d normally tie up your shirt, but instead of applying dye, apply bleach. I did straight bleach here, but many tutorials recommend 1 part bleach to 1 part water. Make sure you’re watching the shirt. When it gets to a desired fade, wash out the bleach thoroughly. Then lay the shirt flat and apply the dye. Let sit for the time noted on the kit’s directions and then rinse.
Our Son’s Shirts
We did two colorful ones and two reverse tie dye. I’m kind of jealous how his turned out, they look great!
Fatima’s Patterns
Fatima’s blue tie-dye job dyed the whole shirt blue. Yes, it was a completely white shirt. To add a pattern, she applied bleach and reversed the solid colors. I love how her yellow-green and fuchsia shirts came out.
Brian’s Patterns
I have a whole new tie dye wardrobe. The kit said we’d be able to support a thirty-six shirt project, so I went a little overboard, even buying onesies for our new nephew. I love the reverse tie-dye, especially the sweatshirt. I had to reapply green dye to the sweatshirt because the fabric was too thick. The bleach kept working beyond rinsing it, and the dye was a little more faded than desired. So after the first 8 hours, I gave it another round of green dye. These are just a few of my favorites.
Hopefully you’re able to enjoy the remaining slice of summer. We had so much fun over our mini-staycation and realized how much we needed this. Here’s to planning more in the future!
