We Dyed on Saturday.

I was sitting behind a lady at a training lunch about getting kids interested in and excited about Engineering and I was drawn in by the color pattern on her shirt. I decided it had to be dyed somehow similaryl to tie dye. Then I got to thinking. It has been like 7 years since I did any tie dying. It seemed like it would be a fun family project. So I put it on our schedule for Saturday, made plans to prep on Friday night and dye on Saturday morning. I got Tulip brand dye (fabric ready and way easier to use than RIT) and picked up white T-shirts and sheets at Goodwill and headed to Grandpa's for the weekend. Addie was thrilled to play with rubberbands with me. Lucas could care less if it meant he had to put down a toy helicopter or train or car or anything that he could use a Vroooom sound effect to. Kevin and Grandpa weren't feeling well so Janma helped keep Emaleigh out of the works and Addie and I ended up doing a girl project. I watched a little youtube video ahead of time to get a new idea about how to fold/wrap the shirts for a neat swirl pattern. We really enjoyed this activity. The shrits I bought for myself from goodwill were actually new shirts and not previously washed so they didn't come out so good. But everything else was awesome. We unveiled our works on Sunday morning after the dye had 24 hours to set in. Most of the items are very purple or blue. Next time we try again I think we should use twice as much orange and yellow, those colors really glow among the darker ones. The T-shirt we made for Kevin was by far the coolest but the sheet that I thought didn't get enough dye was right up there too.
By the way, I did pay attention in the Engineering training and put the innovative methods to use at East Central High School on Thursday last week. I am sure I talked no less than every student I talked to into signing on to be a future Civil Engineer. We solve problems, create things and get to make people's lives better. Anyone else want to join?