diy: tie dye with dye baths

A couple of summers ago I worked at a camp and I became obsessed with tie-dying things. It got a little ridiculous. They had a whole tie-dye setup so I was really easy to dye whatever I wanted. At home, it isn't as easy. You can buy tie-dye sets, but they are a little more pricey than I prefer. And I don't want a whole setup, I just want to do one tie-dye set in the colors I choose, without spending a lot of money. For some reason I thought that using dye baths wouldn't give a very successful tie-dye look, but luckily I was wrong! This is by far the cheapest way to tie-dye a bunch of fabric. I did about 8 yards and spent around $2 on the dye.
You will need some dye powders in the colors of your choosing, white fabric, rubber bands, salt, hot water, buckets, and gloves if you'd like to keep your hands clean.

I layed my fabric out and just gathered it from side to opposite side, crumbled it up and put a rubber band around that section. I repeated this up and down the length of the fabric.  I didn't want to do anything really fancy with the rubber bands, I wanted a simple tie-dye look/pattern.
To start, add 1 cup salt to each container. This helps the fabric absorb the dye better.
Next add your dye powder and the hot water. Look on your dye for instructions on the right amount of water. Stir the mixture until the salt and dye is dissolved.
Put your tie-dyed fabric in the dye bath. If you want the fabric to be all one color, submerge it completely. Otherwise, only put half of it in the bath and leave some of the fabric out. Another method is dye the fabric completely in a light color, rinse it out and then re-tie it and dye it again in a darker color. I did this with a couple pieces of fabric and it worked really well.
Leave each piece in the dye for the amount of time your dye recommends. I left mine in for 20 minutes each. Next, just cut off all the rubber bands and rinse each piece of fabric with cool water.
I put my fabrics out in the sun to let the dye set in a little more before I washed them. There was still dye in mine after washing them out for a while. After this, I washed them with like colors in the washing machine. I will be making some kimonos out of these whenever I get a chance! And a few of these we have taken to the beach to lay on. Love 'em all! I don't know what it is, but I really like tie-dye. A little too much, I know.

xo, Savannah


diy: faux druzy pendant

I'm super into druzy/geode/agate things and I've been really interested in the ways people have DIYed them. This particular one was inspired by this tutorial. She used glass which looks really awesome, but I don't trust myself with breaking glass and handling it without injuring myself. To recreate the one I've made here, you will need a circle bezel pendant, some balsa wood, an Xacto knife, Mod Podge, nail polish in various colors and a necklace chain to hang the finished product on.
Start by chipping off tiny pieces from your balsa wood with your Xacto knife.
Fill your pendant with Mod Podge.
Stuff a bunch of wood shavings into the pendant. Make sure you cover every area possible.
Cover the shavings in Mod Podge. Let it dry completely before painting.
Sheer nail polishes are best for painting this. I painted probably 10 different layers using a paint brush and a sponge. You kind of just have to put a layer on, let it dry and then see what color needs to be layered on again. This part took a minute to get right. Metallic nail polishes are good for this too.
Once you have the desired color combination, slide your pendant onto a chain and wear!
I might try to make another one of these in a bigger version, but I have to figure out what kind of pendant situation I want to use. Until then, I quite like how this turned out.

xo, Savannah