One Color Tie Dyed Shorts

Summer is coming folks. Hair gets lighter, skin gets darker, water gets warmer, drinks get colder, music gets louder, days get longer, and of course, pants get shorter. While every girl needs her soffe and jean shorts to get her through the summer, but some days you just need a little tie die. Instead of going out and buying a brand new ones, why not just make some using an old pair of jean shorts that you never use. All you'll need is some old jean shorts (preferably a light wash so it the color will be more prominent), a plastic tub, rubber gloves, rubber bands, and dye teinture. Dye teinture is a colored powder that you mix with water to dye fabrics in. You can find it at most craft stores, Target, or Wal-Mart. While there are more expensive, brands, some cost as little as $3 which you can use in a gallon of water. I've used the expensive and cheap options and didn't find any noticeable difference between them. If you don't have any jean shorts you want to get rid of, you can also use jean paints and cut them to the length you want the shorts to be. If you are going to make cut-off shorts, I suggest making the jeans distressed using scissors and a foot buffer. Rub the foot buffer against the bottom of the shorts where you cut the legs off or cut tears in the jeans using the scissors and use the foot buffer to rub over the cuts as well.
Step One: Run water over the jeans until they are damp.  Wring any excess water out. Use the rubber bands to bind the jeans together in varying sized clumps. You can use as many rubber bands as you would like, but keep in mind that the more rubber bands you use, the more bursts of color will be on your shorts.
Step Two: Add hot water to your bucket, following the instructions on the packet of dye teinture. Even though the instructions will vary with different brands, I suggest adding 2-4 tablespoons of salt to the hot water with the teinture to help jeans absorb the color, even if the instructions don't call for it.
Step Three: Put the banded shorts into the water/teinture mixture. Wear gloves, because your hands are just as easily dyed as the fabric. Make sure the jeans are completely covered in water so they will be dyed evenly. If any parts of the shorts are sticking out, you can put a heavy item, like a pan with water in it or a jar with rocks in it, on top to push the jeans into the water.
Step Four: Leave the shorts in the water for 30 minutes to an hour.
Step Five: When they are done being dyed, run them under cold water until the water runs clear. Washing them on a normal cycle in the washing machine with more cold water. Wash it without any other clothes, so that the dye doesn't leak onto your other clothes. You can either put them in the dryer (with no other clothes) or lay them out to dry.
Tip: Be careful what kind of materials you are putting in contact with the dye. The color will transfer onto skin ( my hot pink fingers can attest to that), other articles of clothing and wash rags, and plastics. The dye will not stain metals or granite.
Once your jeans are dry, you'll have a unique, single colored tie-dye shorts to wear on a hot summer's day. Here's how mine turned out!