Tie dying pirate bandanas - how?

[Doodle2U]

Hello

Never been or arts & Crafts before.

I've been asked to run a base at my son's Beaver Scout camp in June. The theme of the camp is pirates and they want me to tie dye strips of sheeting to make bandanas.

I've never dyed anything in my life, let alone tie dying but I'm guessing you tie knots in the strips and then dip them in the dye, right? How much water/dye do I need? What kind of dye? Do I need owt else?

Can't help you with amounts but when I did tie dying we used elastic bands on the material. If you get ones of varying sizes and then use them to make sort of "ponytails" with bits of the cloth - i.e. you grab a piece of material and wrap the elastic around it several times.

Not sure I've explained that terribly well. Hopefully someone else can help you more.

Cheers skiDoodle (s'like talkin' to myself! )

If I use elastic bands, maybe that would mean I could make a few at a time, quickly?!

Hmm.....

Ok dylon help and info is the stuff to use.

Do you need to do it with the scouts or in advance and present them with the finished article? How many colours do you need?

I regularly dye stuff, cotton comes up best.

Dye is not that cheap £5-6 for a machine wash - although that would do many bandanas!

If you want to do it by hand you need this stuff hand dye but I don't know how much it is.

You can use ordinary cheap granular cooking salt, do not have to use the dylon stuff.

Happy dyeing!

I'll be doing it in a bucket, I assume MS because I'll be in the middle of a field. The scouts will come to my base and make their own (as part of a whole host of pirate related activities).

So, I get some of that dye you've linked to, with some supermarket salt, rip strips of cotton sheeting, tie lacky bands around the strips, chuck 'em in the bucket of dye.....then what? What shall I do with the salt?

DIRECTIONS

1. Weigh dry fabric. Wash thoroughly. Leave damp
2. Using rubber gloves, dissolve dye in 500ml warm water
3. Fill bowl/stainless steel sink with approx 6 litres warm water (40°C)
4. Stir in 250g (5tbsp) salt. Add dye & stir well
5. Submerge fabric in water
6. Stir for 15mins, then stir regularly for 45mins
7. Rinse fabric in cold water. Wash in warm water and dry away from direct heat & sunlight

HELPFUL HINTS

? You will need 250g salt
? 1 pack dyes up to 250g fabric (e.g. shirt) to full shade or larger amounts to lighter shade
? Suitable fabrics: Cotton, linen and viscose. Wool, Silk, Polyester/cotton and polyester/viscose mixes will dye to lighter shade
? Not suitable: Pure polyester, acrylic, nylon & fabric with special finishes
? Wash separately for first few washes to remove any excess dye
? Please note: Colour mixing rules apply (e.g. blue on red gives purple)

I'm not sure that your scouts will have the ability to wait for an hours dyeing time + rinse, wash and drying - I'm guessing they will want to wear it straight away?

I think you may be better off using some king of quick drying fabric paint for the scouts to decorate their fabric.

Or the last scout meeting before the camp get the scouts to elastic band/tie them as they wish but they will need to write their name in indelible ink on a free edge beforehand. Take them home and dye them, rinse and dry them still with the bands still on and get the scouts to find their own and unwrap it at your base.

Wear long rubber gloves and V old clothes.
Get some old wooden spoons for stirring.
I had a choice of 3 colors for the children.
You need to make sure they do the elastic bands up quite tight too.
Make sure all beavers write their names on after putting the elastic bands on with a permanent pen (I speak from experience trying to identify 60 bandanas in school last year).

Hmm, bit more to this than I thought. Thanks for instructions and top tips.

I think I'll have a wee go at this at home, some time over next couple of weeks. Stand by - I'll have more questions!

Thanks again.