Monday Made It: Dyed Clothes Pins

Hi friends! I cannot believe that kids will be walking through he doors in just a bit over a week from today- aaaaah!! I was chatting with my bestie today and she and I agreed that we have the whole room design down, but when it came to actually teaching, we are not sure we're ready ;)

I missed a few weeks from one of my favorite link-ups at 4th Grade Frolics and I am glad to be back! 

By the way, have I mentioned how grateful I am for this linky? It has kept me on-track all summer and I have found the bestest ideas for my classroom from all of you- thank you! I am definitely not a super-crafty person (Mod Podge and I are mortal enemies!), so it's been awesome to see so many diverse and wonderful projects each week that inspire me to make my classroom that much more lovely :)

Ok, this week's project is: Dyed Clothes Pins!

These are a part of an upcoming post about my classroom management idea, so stay tuned for how they will work in my classroom, but I wanted to give you the how-to now because they take FOR-E-VER to dry!! Holy cats!!

I was inspired by this pin:

Source: raisingoranges.blogspot.ca via Stephanie @ on Pinterest

At first, I was a little nervous by the idea of using fabric dye, but it was sososososososo easy!!

I bought Rit dye in powder form and LOVED it! It was cheaper than the liquid (yay!) and dissolved wonderfully. I did this at school (thus the ruler stir sticks) and I HIGHLY recommend wearing gloves. I am horribly impatient, so I didn't, and I just ended up washing my hands 5,000 times during this project, so looking back, gloves would have been so much better!

I began by buying a TON of clothes pins from Target (the cashier even asked me what I was up to!) and counting out extra since I didn't want to do this more than once this year.

I used cheapcheapcheap bowls to mix warm water and some of the dye- the box said to use salt, but I didn't have any lying around in my class, so I didn't and they turned out fine. There was NO magical formula- I just poured in some dye and filled up the big bowls with water and it worked :)

I slid the clothes pins in CAREFULLY so the dye didn't end up all over me and then used my super-sophisticated ruler stir sticks to make sure they were covered evenly.

Then, I simply let them set for about a half hour. The dye smells a little bit, but not much. I wandered over occasionally during that 30 minutes to stir the pins and make sure they were all getting even amounts of color.

Then, after 30 minutes, I grabbed a ton of paper towels and lined various plates to dry the clothes pins. I ended up having to toss several of the bowls and all of the rulers because that dye is definitely permanent- so be veryveryvery careful of your clothes, hands, and all surfaces oif you so this project!

The end result was a rainbow of clothes pins on my tables drying away....

..... for days and days!! That was my only surprise- don't do this on a Monday evening and think you can use them Tuesday morning. I ended up storing them in large plastic bags by color and they turned out great!

I can't wait to get the rest of this project finalized so I can show you how they will be used in my room (some of you may already have a guess!), but until then, head over to visit 4th Grade Frolics and get inspired!