What's Going on in the Classroom: Dyeing Fabric

As a last exciting project of the year, we're doing some fabric dyeing. Essentially it's tie dye, but we do delve into the world of traditional Japanese Shibori dyeing to start off. We learn all about the history and traditional folding etc. Then student either bring in a piece of cloth that they would like to use or they use a piece of muslin that I provide. Students have to choose (or make up!) their folding method.
We spend a day soaking the fabric in large buckets of dye and then we seal them in Ziploc bags overnight. The next day, the fun begins! Outside, I have several tables set up for soaking the cloth in a salt bath, then taking of all rubber bands and other items, and then rinsing in a clean water and wringing out. We had some pretty cool results this year! I think students will probably do some embroidery on their pieces as well. Here's to the end of the year!