As we were plucking dandelions out of the yard the other day, I noticed my hands were beginning to turn yellow. I remembered that dandelions can be used to make a natural dye and since we had SO MANY, I thought we should put them to good use. You know, the "making lemonade out of lemons" idea ;)
So, we separated the heads from the stems...
and put them in a large pot.
Since this was an impromptu craft, I wanted some simple directions and found them here. I liked how they just added the mordant (alum) directly to the dye (step 5 in the instructions) instead of getting out another pot and doing it separately as I had read in other directions. The mordant is the ingredient that sets the dye and an easy one to use is alum. It can be found in the spice section of the grocery store.
Little Brother is stirring his white T-shirt in the dye...
The finished T, dyed a light dandelion yellow!
We thought we'd take it one step further and add a freezer paper dandelion stencil to the front.
Little Brother has very limited vision and had to get up close to make his drawing. There are lots of good freezer paper stencil tutorials, here's a link to get you started. He's drawing directly on the freezer paper.
I helped by cutting out the drawing to make the stencil...
Then, I placed it on the T-shirt and ironed it on, shiny-side down...
Now, it's time to add the paint. Put a piece of cardboard between the front and back of the shirt so the paint doesn't bleed through to the back side. Little Brother started dabbing on the fabric paint and then I helped to make it complete.
Pull off the freezer paper, let the paint dry (follow directions on your fabric paint bottle for drying) and you have one happy customer!
A dandelion drawing on a dandelion-dyed T-shirt!
beautiful. i love it. from start to finish. everything about it shouts "HOOOOORAY!"
i can't wait to try it.
Posted by: cyndi | June 09, 2008 at 02:40 AM
Awesome! What a great idea - and it turned out perfectly! Love the drawing.
Posted by: Denise | June 08, 2008 at 07:21 PM
Hooray for little brother! =)
Posted by: Allison Fouse | June 08, 2008 at 12:52 PM
That is such a cool idea. I love that everyone was involved and that you, indeed, did make lemons out of lemonade!
And the dandelion drawing is fantastic. I'd buy it on etsy!
Posted by: Tracey@Paper Dolls for Boyst | June 08, 2008 at 12:34 PM
Great job on the shirt. Good to know dandelions are good for something more than weeds and salads.
Posted by: emily | June 08, 2008 at 11:00 AM
That is SO fantastic! I love that it was colored with the dandelions and then decorated with a drawing of one. That is so genius.
Posted by: Wendy | June 08, 2008 at 10:42 AM
That is all kinds of awesome!! What a great way to make use of your dandelions, and his drawing for the t-shirt is so cool. Love it!
Posted by: kate | June 07, 2008 at 10:12 PM