Maybe it’s all this daytime t.v., but I’ve caught the D.I.Y. bug. Trust me, this came as a huge shock to me too. For the blog, I’ve decided to try my hand at crafting with a project a month.

The first project I decided to tackle was inspired by Clinton’s Craft Corner on The Chew – tie-dye napkins. It seemed like a pretty simple starter project, but the only time I’ve ever tie-dyed was at my sister-in-law’s house. She and I were in elementary school, and after tying rubber bands around t-shirts, her mom magically produced two beautiful t-shirts. It all seemed pretty difficult. Lots of stirring, boiling and messy dye were all I remembered, so I was a little apprehensive. Well, let me tell you people, it was easy-peasy. I did it in an evening.

The entire project cost under $10 bucks. Instead of traditional napkins, I picked up some inexpensive kitchen towels at Wal-Mart. At about $1 a piece, I thought mistakes would be pretty painless and liked the idea of oversize towels for messy summer meals. The only other supplies I needed were bottled Rit dye (I went with navy) and rubber bands. Your washing machine will do most of the work.

This site has great info on how to tie your fabric.  I did the knot, spiral, stripes and pleats.

The spiral and knot were my favorites.

Overall, I think the results were pretty great. I wish my dye would have turned a deeper navy, but I don’t think I used enough. My napkins were more of a purple. Still pretty, but not what I expected.