I went through a tie-dye phase in high school, even attempting to dabble in natural dying (!) by collecting red onion peels and the like from the supermarket. As with most things regarding crafts+Alicia, I read up on all possible methods and techniques via many library books. I have since steered clear of it only because in Alicia land, “Today, I’m going to tie-dye” is like saying “Today, I really feel like ruining some counter surfaces and the clothes that I’m wearing.” i.e. I make enough messes and ruin enough shirts just having to eat three meals a day. But! The good people at FaveCrafts sent me the above tie-dye kit to peruse and use and blog about here, so I draped the apartment and myself in as many garbage bags as possible and filled some squeeze bottles. (Tie-dye-disaster-preventer AND poncho all in one!)

Knowing I would already get a dyed shirt in the process (Hi, I’m a mess-ball), I decided to do something for the home: pillowcase dyeing. Boring white pillowcases, begone! So, how did it go with the Tulip One-Step Tie-Dye kit? Fabulously. The directions were easy to follow, and basically involved shaking up powdered dye and water in the provided bottles. Then it was onto choosing a design! I went with “sunbursts,” rubber banding (those were included too) 3-inch pieces of the pre-washed and dampened pillowcase and adding dye like so:

I dyed half of the little pieces with fuchsia, half with purple and then filled the in-between with blue, but leaving some white showing to avoid the “muddy look” they warn against. I let the colors set for about eight hours before undoing the rubber bands, and then tossed in the washing machine with hot water and a teeny tiny amount of soap. I was very pleasantly surprised at how vibrant the colors turned out.

Doesn’t it perfectly complement my wall quote?!

These turned out so well that I’m contemplating tie-dying my sheets, seeing as though I have all-white bedding. Too much color? See, this is the other reason I have to be careful when revisiting past craft loves–I then want to compulsively do it. Before I know it, everything will be tie-dyed because I enjoy “the artistic process” entirely too much sometimes. If you’re thinking that you too want to catch tie-dye fever, FaveCrafts also has a FREE downloadable e-book with 18 different dye techniques. Interested in the above tie-dye kit? They can be found over at I Love to Create (Hey, me too! Nice site name!) If you enter the code “fave1009″ before 11/30, you get free shipping to boot.

What are you waiting for? Get dyeing! Errr….tie-dyeng, that is.