DIY Watercolour fabric

The boys and I had a go at creating our own watercolour fabric during the weekend. We used a combination of blue and green food colouring mixed with water and pink fabric dye.

I really want to teach kids more about colour theory - as simple things like primary colours and how they mix to create secondary colours seem to be missing from their basic colour knowledge these days. So I thought I would try this excersize out with the boys. We initially put strips of masking tape on the fabric in random places and then armed with a spray bottle of dye each, the boys let loose on the fabric.

We used different spray settings to create various effects and watched how the colours changed as they merged. Next time we might try splashing, brush strokes and throwing it on too! (all outside of course)

The effect is quite stunning, although am not sure how colourfast the food colouring is. The boys wanted to make (me make of course) a soft toy, so we naturally used our newly created fabric. Leo wanted an 'Elephant' so this is what we created - a rather cute wee watercolour softie.

I found a simple pattern http://birchfabrics.blogspot.co.nz/2013/07/free-pattern-tutorial-henry-helga.html - super easy (we added a cord tail afterwards)