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Make a fun tie dyed pillowcase the totally doubles as a homemade gift bag! It’s an easy way to get creative with your kids and share your art with others.
The boys (okay mainly Henry) and I received this rad (had to break that out) Tulip Tie Dye Kit in the mail and got to do some tie dying! Totally!
DIY Gift Wrap with a Tie Dyed Pillowcase
We came up with a plan to dye pillowcases before we even got the kit. So we tie dyed right away when we got the kit. I set out all the content to see what we had:
- 3 dyes: yellow, red/pink, and blue
- plastic gloves
- lots of rubber bands!
- instructions (yay! I haven’t tie dyed ever on my own… definitely needed these! A video on ILovetoCreate.com has the basics on how to tie-dye!)
On the instructions, it had ideas on how to tie dye. So I let Henry look over these and decide the style he wanted to do.
I was hoping for something super easy for him to do, like random. Of course, he chose the spiral technique. ILoveToCreate.com has a bunch of techniques to choose from with the how-tos!
I quickly prewashed the pillowcases and we dyed them when wet.
I laid out the large plastic sheet that was sent to us and laid our two pillowcases on it. Henry got one to dye, as well as one for myself.
It’s actually much easier to do the spiral tie dye technique than I thought it would be. Its just all about the prep. Henry even did it himself, and he did the prep well.
Have your fabric laid out flat and grab/pinch where you want the center of the spiral. Then twist! And bunch it up, round and round.
After Henry twisted up his pillowcase, I put the rubber bands on.
Three rubber bands wrapped around so they were evenly distributed around the twisted pillowcase. This makes six sections or triangles.
Then its time to dye the fabric!
We prepared ourselves with our plastic gloves so we wouldn’t be bright blue or pink for the rest of the day.
Then it’s the fun part! Add some color!
The dyes come as powders (already in the bottles), so I quickly filled up the bottles with water to the fill line and shook them up.
Henry, of course, wanted green, so he had to make his own. He used the yellow and blue dyes on his pillowcase. I really tried to make sure he didn’t make it all green, and to leave some yellow and blue separate.
He did well. I just checked it over to make sure he had all the nooks and crannies filled. Then flipped it over to have him finish off the back side too.
I used all the colors on my pillowcase, though I wish I would have left out the yellow. I would have loved to mostly have a pink, blue and purple pillowcase! But it still turned out pretty cool.
I tried really hard to make each section between the rubber bands a different color, but that’s harder than I thought it would be with the dye soaking into the fabrics! It spreads quickly!
Once we made sure we had every last little bit of our pillowcases covered with dye, I wrapped them up in plastic bags for the day and set them inside for about six hours.
Then I washed them in hot water and gave Henry a quick sneak peek before I put them in the dryer. He thought they were so cool!
Once dried, we were proud of our pillowcases!
But that’s not it. I had more planned for our pillowcases.
My mom had given the boys their stocking stuffers in a pillowcase this past Christmas, and I thought the pillowcase was a great medium for wrapping gifts!
And it just so happens that we had two birthdays coming up shortly.
The first was my niece who turned one. Henry decided he wanted to give her the tie dyed pillowcase that he made. So we filled it up with the birthday goodies and tied it off with ribbons! Ta-da!
Gift wrapping: done. And all a part of the gift. Nothing a waste.
I missed getting a photo of my niece’s present wrapped up, so this is the next one! We used my tie dyed pillowcase to wrap up a gift for Father’s Day.
I’m heading over to I Love to Create’s Facebook page to share them what we created. I invite you to do the same!
- Twitter: @ilovetocreate
- Facebook: ilovetocreate
- Pinterest: ilovetocreate
Tulip Tie Dye Kits are available at Walmart, Walmart Canada, Michaels, JoAnn, A.C. Moore, Hobby Lobby, Hancock Fabrics, Meijer. Tie dye kit contents and colors may vary by store.
I wrote this post as part of a paid campaign with iLoveToCreate.com and Blueprint Social. The opinions in this post are my own.
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Thresa says
Did you wash the 2 pillow cases at the same time? Do they need to be washed more than once separate from other laundry?
shaindy says
you say you received the tie dye kit in the mail. was this a purchase? or a promotion?
are there any sites that offer good quality crafting materials? I’m struggling financially and my son and I love crafting
Didi says
This is such a cool idea! We’ve never tried tie-dying, you make it look so easy. I love clever gift wrapping, so we will be trying this out.
Jackie @ Happy Hooligans says
Oops! I meant TIE-dyed!
Jackie @ Happy Hooligans says
These are so gorgeous! I’ve never tye-dyed either! The process always seems so intimidating! These would be great for those awkward gifts that are hard to wrap and don’t fit in a gift bag! Pinning!
Jamie says
Glad I’m not the only one that hasn’t tie dyed. I have… but it was probably back in Vacation Bible School! Where I just did what I was told, not really know at all what I was doing.
Jen@Plain Vanilla Mom says
Love this! We have a tie dye kit in our art closet just waiting to be used. I had always assumed we’d be dying tshirts (and have been procrastinating) but you have inspired me. I think we may be tie dying this weekend. My 7 year old would LOVE a tie dyed pillow case! Maybe even a beach blanket…we’ll have to see what we can come up with!
Bromeliad says
So brave to let a little one dye. And he did so good.
condoblues says
I made fabric gift bags last year to wrap Christmas gifts. It changed my life. No multi day gift wrapping marathon made me a happier camper!
Veronica says
Oh my that is very cool. I’ve tie dyed shirts in high school, but we dipped the shirts in bowls of dye. I love the idea of using the bottles instead. That looks so much easier. I am so bookmarking this for a future summer project.
JDaniel4's Mom says
I love this so much more than a gift bag!
Dusti says
Aha! :) Explains the unique wrapping! LOVED it!! :) Thank you Henry! It looks fantastic!
Jamie says
You’re very welcome! I hope she’ll get use out of it when she finally gets a big bed! I know we’re super early for that, but thought it was good gift wrap!