I am addicted to sweets. I am constantly buying candy and I am always trying to find ways to use the colorful packaging in my projects. Here is Sienna’s new favorite dress I made using a colorful Nerds box and some tie dye:
She wore it for three days straight. I finally got her out of it tonight by promising she could wear her tinted goggles to dinner (see bottom of the post for that photo).
She pretty much looks like she got tangled up in the Willy Wonka conveyor belt.
Look how great all these packages are! The Nerds were my favorite for Sienna and I thought the Hot Tamales would be perfect for a boy. I scanned them into my computer…..
….and printed them out on transfer paper. This was the first time I’ve used Dharma Trading’s Super Soft Transfer Paper and I am now officially hooked…..this stuff just feels like part of the fabric after one washing (the other stuff I was using felt a little plastic-like….and is going in the trash).
For this particular dress I made a patch to sew on, but you could iron the transfer directly onto the dress as well. Make sure to follow the directions for the transfer paper you are using.
Peeling the backing off is the best part.
I adhered my patch to the dress using fusible web and then stitched it into place.
Once the transfer was finished, I soaked the dress pieces in water (with table salt) to prepare them for dying.
After soaking for a few minutes, I took the pieces out of the water, squeezed the excess water from them, twirled into little spirals and secured with rubber bands.
Next, I covered them with pink and purple dye, wrapped them up tight in plastic and left them overnight.
The next morning I rinsed out the dye and ran the pieces through the wash. Here are the finished pieces before I sewed the rest of the dress together. I love how the dye becomes part of the transfer.
Sienna’s replacement outfit for dinner tonight…..only because she got to wear the goggles.
This tutorial is part of a series for the Lil Blue Boo / Dharma Trading Challenge running until the middle of February. If you haven’t checked it out yet please do! All levels of design/sewing/printing encouraged to enter! Entries are due by February 15, 2010.
So cute!!
And you would've liked Leila's birthday party last week: http://leilasmom.blogspot.com/2010/01/leilas-sweet-shoppe.html
That girl has STYLE!
So awesome! I love your (and your little chickie's) sense of style!
I have the worst sweet tooth…this is adorable.
ps. Is that a Vera bag in the last pic? She's one of my favorites, too and her shopper totes are the best!
LOVE THIS!
And so get a kick back from DHarma? You should! I just placed my order for this WONDER transfer paper!
Now your post is super cute, your ideas crazy good, but you got out done by how cute it is that your daughter could be bribed with wearing goggles for dinner!
Those goggles are so cute !
What a fun idea!
It's super sweet. What was the temp' you washed your dress with? after my dye I washed it in thewashing machine and all the white parts were painted too:(
Too cute! Can't wait to try it myself. Your t-shirt dress is one of my fav patterns! The possibilites are endless.
Love the goggles!! They are a most overlooked fashion accessory for little girls!! Love the combination of the transfer and tie-dye, too! It's sooooo Lil Blue Boo!
I blogged it here:
http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-make-a-sweet-candy-dress-with-transfers-and-tie-dye/2010/01/31/
–Anne
Super cute – I will have to do this for my girls!!
So cute, I mean gnarly! Any way I could get you to make me a Mike and Ike patch? Every time I attempt to iron on transfers I fail dismally lol. Great job! I never tire of your ideas 🙂
What a great idea!
Lovely dress! Thank you for sharing!
By the way… I got something for you in my blog 🙂
You did it again!!!
I need to muster up the guts to do it now;}
Thanks for the tutorial!!
Wow, this is genius! 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing!
I am so excited to try this. I went and got all my supplies today(LOTS of candy, LOL). I am just doing the generic hobby lobby tie dye, I have never tie dyed anything in my life, so I went cheap for the first time around. I also Have two pieces of the transfer paper left over from another project I am gonna use, but I think I will definitely invest in the dharma stuff, it sounds AWESOME.
you are too clever!!
Dumb question….but how did you get the images to print reversed like that?
If you don't mind me answering the above question…i Know!!! LOL
Dana, there should be a setting under your printer's setup options. If you let me know what kind of printer you have I will email you detailed instructions. Also, most photo editing programs have reverse image printing options. Hope that hopes you get started!!! (my email is [email protected])
Love it!
That's very clever! 🙂
what a creative and absolutely playful design for a little girl to wear – love this and the goggles.
This is such a cute idea! I'm glad there is better transfer paper out there! If I make this, I'd probably add the transfer after I dye the fabric.
Thank you! This blog post will be advertised on CraftCrave in the Handcraft category today (look for timestamp: [08 Feb 04:00pm GMT]).
Does the supersoft transfer paper hold up in the wash? I want to try it, but a few reviews say it doesn't wash well. I'd love to know if it is working for you still!
Very beautiful dress. I bet I must add this dress to my collection of black dresses.