Tie-Dye Shoes

When I think of summer a few words come to mind: hot, watermelon, pool, fun, friends, ice cream, vacations, smore's.  And tie-dye. Yes, tie-dye. Maybe it is all the summer camp influence but I just can't imagine summer without a tie-dye project.

This project comes from this super cute girl. She is the recipient of my son's affection, which means she is around our house enough to give me a short lesson on how to tie-dye shoes.

The supplies for this project are super easy to find. Wal Mart has Tie-Dye kits in their craft section. They are reasonable, $15.00 for five bottles of dye, refills, gloves, and rubber bands. I also picked up the plain white shoes from Wal Mart and a plain white t-shirt. Total, I spent $20.00 on this project.

 My coach suggested going outside for this project. We took a plastic bag and put our supplies on it, to protect the deck. {That is almost funny because we need a new deck so badly!} Our tie-dye kit came with plastic gloves and I highly suggest using them to protect your hands. My hands are still pink from just mixing the colors and carrying them outside.

  Step 1: The first step is getting the shoes wet. Place them in warm water.  Then start small. It takes very little dye to do the shoes. Because the shoes are wet, the dye will spread. Add a drop and wait to see how far it will spread.

Step 2: Just keep working your way around the shoe. Add a drop. Let it spread. Using the tip of the bottle, help spread the dye around the shoe filling in all the white with color. Remember, work in small, small amounts.

Step 3: Save the tongue of the shoes for last. My coach told me she dyed the first pair of laces but decided it did not look very good, so she recommended leaving the laces white.  The shoes will still be wet and they need to dry. My coach suggested taking the shoes inside to dry because she left her first pair outside in the wind and the wind altered the dye.

After we did the shoes, I quickly did a t-shirt for The Short Chic so she has a shirt to match her shoes.

She thinks she is the coolest kid on the block. {I might agree with her!}

Update: I made these shoes again for some friends. I noticed that my first pair faded a lot in the drying process. For the second pair, instead of submerging the shoes in water to get them wet I used a spray bottle and dampened them. The shoes need to be wet to take the dye but they do not need to be soaked. When the latest pair dried they were much much darker than the first pair I did.