Summer Shirts 2013

We started a tradition several years back where my boys and I make summer shirts.  Yesterday, I finally had everything together that we needed to complete this year's project. I had done a Sharpie tie dying with my young women a while back, and I thought it was simple enough that my boys could have a lot of fun with it.  Here's what we used. 

 I already had the cups on hand.  I think the small cups worked great.  The large one were a little too large.  Next time, I'd use the smaller size red drinking cups, just one size down from what I have here.  I grabbed the ear droppers and alcohol at the pharmacy. 

 First, take one layer of the shirt and stretch it over a cup.  Wrap the rubber band tightly around the cup.  Then use permanent Sharpie markers to stipple various colors onto the circle.  It works best if you leave a blank spot in the center with no color, but my boys didn't do too well with that part. 

 The more dots, the more color there will be to spread once you drop the alcohol onto it. 

 Next, just fill up the dropper with the rubbing alcohol and drop it into the middle of the dots.  Let it spread and do its job.  On the smaller cups, one dropper about half full did the trick.  The larger cups required a little extra dripping around the edges. 

 You can also remove the cups and place others to overlap edges of completed circles for a more full effect.  The alcohol evaporates rather than dries so it is ready to wear fairly quickly.  We ironed the front once we were complete just to set the colors. 

 And here is the finished result.  Fun.  Not perfect, especially the littler boys' shirts, but it was something that they were able to do with little intervention from me.  And it was fun enough that it kept their attention for quite a while.  Happy summer.