As an art teacher, I could not settle for a brunch or a high tea for my baby shower. If I was gathering some of my closest family and friends to celebrate Baby Lang we were going to make art together, gosh darn it! Hence the Shibori Baby Shower was born!

Guests were provided with baby onesies, blurb towels and muslin blankets to dye at the party. I demonstrated four different folding and binding techniques; Triangle fold, Sprial Bind, Scrunch Bind, and Square/rectangle fold. Guests than wet their bound bundle in water to aid in the dyeing.

Once wet, guests could begin dipping their items in the indigo dye vat. For the dye vat, I used two large plastic storage containers with lids. The lids are needed to cover the vats before and after. The items needed to be dipped at least twice to ensure the indigo colors are dark and the dye can soak into the areas that are not bound creating contrast in the dyed designs.

Twenty minutes between each dip need to allotted to allow the dye to oxidize. The items will initially look green as the indigo color or appears when it reacts with the air. SCIENCE!

Plastic bags were used to contain the wet items between dips. After the final dip, the items were unbound and rinsed in cold water until all the water ran clear. Once rung out, the items were hung to dry.

I ordered the Shibori Dye Kit from Amazon and used 3 kits total to 30 guests and dye roughly 60 items. By the end of the shower, the dye baths were exhausted. Below is a list of items needed in addition to the dye kits.

Shibori Supplies & Materials:

Rubber bands, binder clips, latex gloves, large containers for dye vats, plastic bags for storage, natural fibered clothing or fabric (100% cotton absorbs the dye the best,  dying of synthetic fibers do not yield as bright an bold color contrast)

Everyone had a wonderful time, the cost to host and for guests to attend was minimal and the afternoon was spent celebrating the arrival of a baby by making art.