A Craft A Week: Week 10 - Run or Dye Race T-Shirt Refashion

Ever heard of the Run or Dye race?  Check it out here: http://www.runordye.com/ Maybe they'll be coming to a city near you.  Anyway, my coworker Charisse put together a Team for AECOM called the AECOM DyeHards.  I immediately signed up because I saw the pictures of this race last year and it looked like a blast!  At first it was just going to be me and my coworkers, then Hubby needed to work at an Open House on campus so it was me and Reed.  Then Chase was going to be home for the weekend and then Blake too.  So now it was me and the 3 kids going on a 5K.

 

We need shirts!  The Dyehards planned out wearing white shirts and using tape to spell out DYEHARDS, then after the dye we could peel off the tape and our tape would be spelled out in white.  I bought me and the kids cheap white shirts from Hobby Lobby and I had some Washi tape from the St. Patrick's Day project.

 

Start with a shirt:

Spell out your words with the tape:

If using Washi tape, it peels off really easily so I recommend using some puffy paint to outline the letters and help keep the tape stuck down on the shirt.  Plus it adds more flair!  I even added some glitter to spice it up more - and hide the gloppy spots in the paint.

Then I made some for the kids.  This one is for Chase:

This one is for Blake, I thought he would appreciate less flair.  I was wrong though, he liked Chase's better and then his letters kept coming off because I didn't outline them with paint.

This one is for Reed:

At this point I was trying to get them done and liked how Blake's looked so I skipped the paint outline on the tape.  Later I realized again how I wish I had taken the time to do it - Reed peeled off all his "stickers" before we even left the house that morning.

As for a re-fashion, do you know how we all make those fleece blankets with the tied sides?  Well, I did that to the sides of my shirt, but not ONE picture shows the side.  Here is the tutorial I learned this from: http://connectthedotsons.blogspot.com/2011/03/diy-husbands-large-t-shirt-to-fitted.html

I've tried this re-fashion twice before, once last year for Donut Dash 5 and the first time I did it was for a Halloween shirt I wore in 2011, but alas I have no good photos of those either.  The tutorial will have to do.

Alright, so Dawn came over and we all carpooled downtown to meet the rest of the DyeHards before the race.  We wanted to take a group shot:

And I wanted a Mom and Kids shot:

Once we were all together, we headed to the start line where people were already throwing dye everywhere.  Chase and I took this selfy and I love it!

When the race started we took off with the pack.  Dawn and the kids and I were all walking and the rest of the Dyehards were running or jog-walking.  The plan was to meet at the end and take an "after" photo.  Along the race there were several Dye Zones where volunteers threw dye at you, your shirt, your hair, everywhere!  Before we ever got to the first Dye Zone a fellow walkers husband accidentally threw a HUGE HANDFUL of orange dye right in my face.  Lovely.  Everyone around me was laughing - I was too - and we kept on truckin'.  I think that was the sign that everyone thought I wanted dye in my face because at every Dye Zone it was similar.  Gag.  Hack.  Cough.  By the end, with the sweat and trying to rub some off, I looked like some sort of army person trying to hide in the trees, I looked ridiculous and the rest of my group looked all cute and smiley.  Ugh.

Anyway, after the race we went to lunch at Subway looking ridiculous then back home for immediate scrubbing and bathing and scrubbing and more scrubbing.  Finally we looked normal again so we packed up and went camping for the night!

Today I am super sore in my arms from pushing Reed in the stroller and my thighs are super sore also.

Dawn and I would like to do a run once every other month.  We will skip April, maybe just do some hiking on the American River Trails.  In May we want to do the Race For The Cure on Mother's Day weekend.  I'll need to find some pink gear to wear and some more re-fashions to try.

Recap:
If I were to do it again, I would buy shirts from another store.  I noticed that the shirts we bought from Hobby Lobby did not hold the dye like shirts my friends purchased from Michael's (see Dawn's shirt in the middle, she was right next to me the whole time and her shirt turned out amazing).  As I said above, I would make sure the tape is held better with some puffy paint and I might even use a different kind of tape or masking tape.  I would try harder to keep my face cleaner so I could feel pretty in my photos.  And I would make sure I actually got a picture of the hard work of tying the sides.  Duh.

Next Project:
I want to work on my downstairs bathroom.  The "theme" is: ocean.  I bought the following picture from Personal Creations.com and it was delivered with a broken frame (of which I am going to re-craft), but they shipped me a replacement that will arrive this Friday.

Of course it says MIKE +JENNI rather than RYAN + LESLIE.  But when it arrives I want to add to the bathroom with some of the other ideas I like.  If you Follow me on Pinterest I have a board called "For My Bathroom" that I've been saving inspiration photos.  I'm not 100% sure yet what I am going to make this week, the bathroom is very small and there is no room for a table with knickknacks so it all has to be wall decor.  Here is some inspiration:

Please comment, cheer me on, send me your thoughts and encouraging words and as always I would love to see pictures of what you are working on!