• Home
• About
• Blog Roll

Recycle, reuse, recreation - all in one art project
August 6, 2007

Art? Art with recycled material? My children have always suffered greatly from my lack of artistic imagination, generally speaking. But every so often, we manage to create an art project together that entertains everyone involved. And the best part is that the end products are actually usable. Have you counted how many sheets of paper towel you use everyday, especially when your toddlers spill all sorts of liquid through out the day? And have you counted how many old T-shirts that have been long forgotten in your closet? In my 4-person household the answers are: at least 25 sheets of paper towel a day and about 25 old T-shirts.

So with the help of my girls (5 and 2 & ½), we made 40 tie-dyed napkins from 8 old T-shirts. All you need are: old T’s, a tie-dye kit (available in craft stores for $5), rubber bands, a bucket, scissors, and a flat surface.

Cut the T-shirts to 12 inch by 12 inch squares. It really doesn’t matter if you cut it smaller or bigger, straight or jagged. My 5 year old can handle scissors and her squares usually look like any shapes but squares. Luckily perfection is not required in this project. Different colored T-shirts are great; they add variety.

Tie each piece of cut cloth with rubber bands. Bunch it up and tie it or roll up the cloth and tie off in sections. If you feel the urge to be more creative, find different sized pebbles. Tie the cloth around a pebble. You can repeat the process with more pebbles, depending upon the size of the pebbles and how much work you want to put in it. Be Martha Stewart and get fancy!

Toddlers lose patience pretty fast. My 5-year old tied 5 pieces of cloth and my 2 & ½ tied 0, as expected. I did the other 35 while watching Iron Chef, so it didn’t feel like much work. For every piece of cloth, you need about 5 rubber bands. Sometimes the tie-dye kits come with rubber bands. You can also buy them in crafts stores. Most tie-dye instructions recommend wetting the cloth before tying rubber bands. Since we are making every day napkins that have the sole purpose of getting stained and dirty, quality control is not our first priority.

Prepare a flat surface big enough to lay all your tied cloth bundles on. I put down an old plastic shower curtain on our outdoor table. Most tie-dye kits come with different colored dyes in powder form in separate bottles, soda ash, and instructions. Dissolve soda ash in tap water in a bucket and soak the tied bundles in the solution. Mix the dyes with tap water in their bottles. The detailed proportion is provided in die-dye kits. Remember to wear gloves, little people and big people. Wear clothes that you don’t mind getting stains on. The fun starts. Squirt dye liquid along rubber bands and wherever to your liking. The best part is that there is NO wrong way of doing it. If you involve toddlers, garage or backyard is more suitable to avoid any accidents. My 5-year old had a fantastic time creating her various color schemes.

We are almost done. Just leave the bundles undisturbed for 24 hours. Then rinse them under warm tap water while untying them. You have your napkins! Wash them in your washer like normal garment. They are ready for use! If you want to be elaborate, you can iron on decorations - butterflies, dragonflies, monkeys, or other kids’ favorite patterns. Make sure the iron-on decorations are washable.

Now we use the tie-dyed napkins every day instead of paper towel. My kids love them and their friends love them when they use them.

Effort of this project: 5 hours
Cost of this project: $6 (including tie-dye kit, water used)
Environmental impact: 9125 sheets of paper towel (163 rolls) saved a year
Financial impact: $330 saved a year
Kids’ enjoyment: priceless

If you have cool ideas about reusing existing household material, I’d love to hear about them!

Selected previous Green Journal entries:
Time & Energy Saving Meals
Rest Your Computer and Save Energy
Seal,Mail and Recycle Cell Phones
Organic Gardening

CindyW at Organicpicks

If you enjoyed this entry, please subscribe to the Organic Picks Blog

Copyright 2007 Organicpicks