Hello Sseko friends! My name is Bethany, and I’m a Partner Care Intern at Sseko this summer. After being a Sseko fan for a few years, I was so excited to join Team Sseko here in Portland, which, I discovered, just so happens to have the coolest office culture ever.
Today I’d like to share with you a fun DIY activity that we recently experimented with in our office: Tie-Dyed Straps! If you’re looking for a way to jazz up your ribbons this summer, or want a fun activity for your next Sseko Party in a Box, this is it!
Our team spent an afternoon trying out several different methods of tie-dying, so we could see which had the coolest effect (with the least mess!). We found 3 methods that work best, so, in order of least to most messy, here are the Official Sseko Designs DIY Tie-Dye Straps!
FABRIC MARKERS
Nothing says no-mess like a fabric marker.
What You’ll Need
1 pair white cotton Sseko straps
Fabric marker (we used a purple broad point Tee Juice marker from Jacquard)
Believe it or not, fabric markers actually work like markers! For a fun effect, tightly wrap your straps around something like a pen or paintbrush, then draw a pattern with the marker. To smudge the design, just use water. When you’re happy, unwrap your straps, and let dry.
KNOTTED SPONGING
Sponges are a bit messier than fabric markers, but they usually have a wider diameter with a, well, sponge texture.
What You’ll Need
1 pair white cotton Sseko straps
Fabric paint
Sponge brushes
1. Knot, twist, or braid your straps together into one string. I twisted my straps, folded the string in two, and twisted them again. I ended up with what looked like a flat braid. You can also wrap the straps around a paintbrush; really, anything works, it just depends on what you want the final product to look like.
2. Sponge the paint onto your straps. You might think of the blotchy color pattern on marble as you do this. Repeat on the reverse side of your string.
3. Untie your straps and let dry.
MIXED METHOD TIE-DYE
This is the messiest DIY strap method because it involves dip-dyeing your straps, but if you want to say that you actually tie-dyed your Ssekos, this is the way to go.*
What You’ll Need
1 pair white cotton straps
1 packet dye
Rubber bands, string
Fabric paint
Paint sponge
1. Prepare the dye water as directed on the dye packet. Usually this requires hot water, salt, and a bucket.
2. Unwrap your pair of Sseko straps from the cardboard. Fold or roll your pair into a bundle of straps and secure with rubber bands. I, being a first-time tie-dyer, folded my straps, while other members of our team rolled theirs. Either method works, but folding is easiest if you don’t have the patience to roll your straps into a tight circle.
3. Tie the string onto the rubber bands on each side of the bundle so that you can dip your straps into the dye water vertically. This will give you alternating sections of white and color on your finished strap.
4. Dip half of your strap bundle into the dye. Let it soak, but keep it upright. The longer it soaks, the darker the straps will get.
5. When you’re satisfied with the shade of your bundle, remove it from the dye water, but don’t remove the rubber bands. Using a sponge, blot your fabric paint onto the edges of your straps.
6. Undo your rubber bands and lay each strap flat to dry. We let ours dry on trash bags over the weekend, but the dye should dry overnight.
*Unfortunately for true tie-dye aficionados, the traditional method of tying the cotton straps and soaking them in dye water won’t work on Sseko straps. With such a thin strap, the dye water completely soaked through our fabric and rubber bands, turning our straps into a solid gray. When we dyed our straps in the dye water, we found it best to only dip a section of our tied bundle. This gives you alternating bands of white and color, which is what tie-dyed clothing looks like when you only use a single dye color.
There are other techniques for the artists among us, and we would love to hear about them! For the patient painter with a steady hand, may we suggest pointillism or lines of poetry? Or how about a Monet-esque tie-dye + fabric marker? Happy tie-dyeing!