How to Tie Dye With Sharpie Pens

Use funky colored Sharpie pens to make your very own tie-dye effect.

Tie-dying is a fun project to do with friends and family. Although it can be done inside or outside, traditional tie-dying can take a long time to finish and can get really messy. If you want to cut out the mess and save some time, you can create a simple tie-dye effect using Sharpie pens. This is a fun project that's kid friendly and great for times when you want to exercise your creativity.

Things You'll Need

• Sharpie pens (various colors)
• Rubbing alcohol
• Rubber bands
• Light-colored T-shirt
• Plastic cup

Instructions

1. Place a section of the shirt over a the drinking portion of a plastic cup and secure the shirt with a rubber band. The portion of the shirt secured over the cup will look like a circle.

2. Draw an outline of a large circle about 1" in diameter. The outline should be made by making small dots of various colors in the in the center of the portion of the shirt secured over the cup.

3. Pour rubbing alcohol into the cap of the rubbing alcohol bottle. Slowly pour the alcohol directly over the outline of the 1" diameter circle. You'll begin to see the alcohol bleed the Sharpie bots into a tie-dye pattern.

4. Let the alcohol completely drain from that portion of the shirt and move on to the next section of the shirt.

5. Draw other outline shapes like stars or squares and repeat steps 3 and 4 until you are happy with the results. Place the shirt in the dryer and set the dryer to a 15-minute drying cycle.

References

• Steve Spangler: Sharpie Pen Science