Make your own Tie Dye tablecloth to use a picnic blanket or a summer party tablecloth.
Celebrate 4th of July with a picnic using this tie dye tablecloth. You can use it as a red, white, and blue picnic blanket, or put it on your 4th of July dinner table for your party!

If you saw our post on Wednesday you might have noticed the red, white and blue tie-dyed picnic blanket the kids were picnicking on. Tie-dye is so big this year and Melinda has been chomping at the bit to do a tie-dye project. So, with picnic season here we thought a tablecloth would be perfect for our first try! A tablecloth is great because it can be used for so many things; a tablecloth (inside or outside), a picnic blanket, or a backdrop for photos. If you don’t have a white tablecloth go check out a local thrift store to find a cheap one, or buy a white sheet. My white tablecloths don’t last more than a year or two before they get a stain on them that just won’t come out, so this was a great way for me to give one new life.

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We bought a tie-dye kit that came with everything we needed; rubber bands, dyes, bottles, instructions for various tie-dye patterns, and gloves. I’d recommend buying yourself some nicer gloves since several of my fingers ended up blue and red.

Celebrate 4th of July with a picnic using this tie dye tablecloth. You can use it as a red, white, and blue picnic blanket, or put it on your 4th of July dinner table for your party!

For the tablecloth we did the standard spiral pattern. We laid the fabric out flat and pinched the middle, then twisted it in a circle to create a flat spiral. We used the rubber bands to create our segments and filled each segment with color. We wanted to go with red, white and blue so we just alternated red and blue dye. Once we saturated one side we flipped it over and dyed the opposite side. When we felt like we had enough dye on the fabric we put the whole thing in a plastic bag where it would need to sit for 8 hours while the dye set.

Melinda was super-excited so we also threw in a white t-shirt and a onesie for the kids.

Learn how to tie dye and start making all of your fabric more colorful!

For the onesie we created a bullseye pattern. We laid the fabric out flat then made a circle with one hand, placing it in the center of the fabric. Then I pulled the fabric up through my hand. We used the rubber bands to create segments along the fabric. This time we added a teal dye in so we alternated between red, blue and teal. Again we sealed it up in a plastic bag to let the dye set for 8 hours.

Learn how to tie dye and start making all of your fabric more colorful!

We created stripes on the t-shirt. We laid the fabic out flat and folded it into pleats, like a fan, then created segments down the fabric with the rubber bands. The tablecloth took a lot of dye so, at this point we were starting to run low on red and blue, which meant the t-shirt ended up with a lot more teal, but  it worked.

After 8 hours, I think Melinda timed it to the second she was so excited to see how everything came out, Melinda rinsed each item under cold water until the water ran clear. She was worried about how difficult it would be to get the fabric thoroughly rinsed but it was simple and took less than 5 minutes for each piece. Once everything was rinsed it was all thrown in the wash together, washed in hot water, then dried.

Celebrate 4th of July with a picnic using this tie dye tablecloth. You can use it as a red, white, and blue picnic blanket, or put it on your 4th of July dinner table for your party!

The next day I came over and we let the kids have a picnic outside on their new red, white and blue tie-dyed picnic blanket. We even took a little time to tack it up to the fence and get so cute pictures of Sawyer all ready for the 4th of July.

Celebrate 4th of July with a picnic using this tie dye tablecloth. You can use it as a red, white, and blue picnic blanket, or put it on your 4th of July dinner table for your party!

The project was really fun and Melinda already has a thousand ideas on what we should tie-dye next!

katmelsignature

 

 

 

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