Bubble Print "Tie" Dye OR Bubble Dye!

Tie-dyeing is the art of folding or tying fabric to resist the dyes and create diffrent unique patterns of color. Having been around forever, and a staple to most camps I have dyed more fabric than I care to admit! 

I decided to experiment with an idea I had for tie dying, based on bubble prints.  The results, Bubble Dye!

Bubbles
Liquid Rit Dye (or powdered dye)
Straws
Pie Pans
Cardboard
White Tee Shirt

To start put your cardboard inside your shirt.  This keeps the die from going to both sides and allows you more control.

place your dye in the pie pan an add in your bubbles.  I used liquid dye, but powdered dye works well too.  (and in some cases better because instead of adding water ONLY add the bubbles to mix the dye)

Stir your bubbles and dye together, make sure you mix well.

GENTLY blow into the mixture.  You want a nice even and easy stream to blow into the liquid.  This helps the bubble slowly rise and not go all over everywhere. 

Once your bubbles are nice and tall it's time to POP!

Take your tee shirt and pop the bubbles.  You want to hit the bubbles only not the side of the pan.

It's good to note that the softer and more adsorbent you material the more the bubble prints will show up.

Repeat until you get your desired look.

Once you have your shirt with the desired look you can stop.  Let the shirt dry for 24-48 hrs.  Once it's dry I like to hit it with an iron to really set the dye state then take the shirt and rinse until it runs clear.

This is a fun project for kids, but messy.  Don't wear anything you don't want to get dye on.  It can be messy, so doing it outside is recommended.

This can actually be done with food dye, but the dye doesn't stain as well as fabric dye

This can be done on paper, which turns out really cool, I'll be putting an instructable up on that this week. :)

Using the powdered dye and putting it straight into the bubble and mixing will get you better results.