A DIY test run before doing it with a pretty cool 12 year old...

So my niece and I have a Pinterest Board together. With me living in LA and her in Missouri, it is hard for me to keep in touch with her and stay up to date on her likes, dislikes and personality even. They just grow so darn quick! Any way, we came up with a really cool idea to try to do a couple pins while Husband and I are home visiting the families this Christmas. One pin that kept coming up was this one. While it looks SUPER cool, my brain was like: The watercolors paint will just wash out or fade super quickly. That doesn't make sense. Why would you use such a silly "dye"?

Then, thanks to A New Dress A Day post and, also this pin, I figured out a way to do it with Rit Dye (aka permanent). So my buddy Kris from How to Feed a Starving Artist came over and tried it out with me. 

She was working with a crew neck cotton t shirt while I was working with mostly cotton, partially polyester, white dress that I had been planning on giving away. Now Polyester doesn't take dye for all you never have dyed clothing before people out there. Like there is no way known to man to do such things. But I figured that since I was planning on getting rid of it any way, I might as well give it a whirl. 

So I diluted some kelly green and royal blue dye (the liquid kind) in some water, pulled out the sponge brushes, laid out some trash bags to protect the area, and then saturated the clothing that would be dyed with tap water. We wore gloves and old clothes just in case as well. then we got to work.

Here is out not well lit work space in the Car Port at my apartment.

I ended up applying the color with long strokes and puddles of color much like a Monet while she when for more of a Seurat look by flicking the color. We then let them dry outside for a day until they were completely dry.

Gotta let them dry.

I then washed them in cool water and a mild detergent rinse out any extra dye and they dried them in the machine.

My dress with long lines of color.

Kris's Shirt with flicks of color.

And here I am modeling my master piece:

I know, I look very serious.

I would say this was a very successful DIY which I look forward to do with my niece as well as do again by myself on an article of clothing or two.