Tie Dye Rasta Lion

pack-n-play sheet for Xire's crib

My best Lady, Jenna, and I bought dye to tie dye Post's onesies when he was one month old.
Never happened.
So I got on a kick today. I love dying garments so I stretched on my rubber gloves and got to work. Kids think this is a crazy fun activity so make sure the clothes they are wearing are alright to get stained. Adults can get a little more serious about their creations, hence the lion.
Here is how you can create this bad boy. I like Rit dyes but you can use which ever brand you like. You can get Rit at the grocery store on the same isle as bleach.

You are going to need:
 red dye (make sure you get a red-red it can turn a bit purple if you get an untrue red color)
yellow dye (golden yellow is a great choice here)
green dye (my green was an earth green, it has a bit of blue in it)
3 squeeze bottles (you can get them at the craft store, ours are from the candy section )
Hot water
Rubber gloves
Rubber Bands
cotton garment or material in which you would like to dye
plastic bin or metal sink
baby gate, cookie cooling rack, metal grate (anything with a bunch of wholes in it)
Cold Water
mild laundry detergent
Plastic store bags (recycle recycle recycle)
microwave
simple picture of a lion to work off of
and Reggae Music ;D

**here are some videos and links to get your bearing:
How to tie dye a smiley face
How to tie dye a heart
Rit Tie Dying
Note: you don't need top soak your shirt in soda ash

1. fold your picture of a lion in half. you are making a symmetrical face so you only need to know what one side looks like. you don't need awesome drawing skins to create this.

2. fold you garment in half as seen in videos above. Draw out half of your lion face with your kiddos washable marker. Don't add too much detail because it will get lost. Think outline, eyes, nose and chin/mouth.
3. As seen in the smiley face video, gather for the eye. the only thing you should not pay attention to in this video is how to make the mouth.
4. Next, as seen in the heart video, for the nose (just the triangle part of the nose)
5. Next, as seen in the heart video, gather the outline of the head. As he says, make sure this is a straight line when you are done so the the rubber band does it's job.
6. Next find your chin/mouth line and gather it into a straight line, using information you learned in the heart video.
7. now that the face is done, take mental note of what this looks like so when you are dying you know what part you are working with.
8. in an accordion manner, gather the material around the face, and rubber band where you think the mane should stop. Accordion the rest of the material and rubber band as you please
9. dunk garment in water and ring out.
10. I only had a child's gate. hahaha what a mom. So, place the child's gate over your plastic bin. you are essential creating the work place as seen in the videos.
11. place 4 T of liquid dye or 1/2 pack of powder dye in a squeeze bottle. Pour 2 c of blazing hot water from your faucet into bottle. repeat for each color.
12. Put on gloves, remember the face part, dye it red. The mane, yellow. The outer area, green.
13. place dyed garment in a plastic shopping bag. Twist the bag to close. Place this bag in another bag and twist to close.
14. As read in the Rit Tie Dye Section, place garment in the microwave for to minutes. I checked mine every 1 minute because I wanted to make sure it didn't explode.
15. Let it sit for an hour or two: make dinner, bathe the kiddos, put them to bed. Okay, now go out side to the hose and open your bag and remove garment. Recycle your bags
16. rinse the dye out until clear with cold water. remove rubber bands, and rinse again. Make sure water rung out of garment is clear.
17. wash garment in mild detergent and dry in drier on high.
18. Ta-DA!!!!!

Love love love and Blessings!