Using Teresa’s great tie-dye t-shirt project (with excellent instructions and pictures), you can create a fun party theme. You can cut out or print out t-shirt shaped invitations, and make a t-shirt shaped cake, frosting it to look like a tie-dyed shirt.
Go all out and tie-dye a tablecloth in advance, using Teresa’s instructions. You can find cute party favors too like these tie-dye t-shirt notepads. A tie-dye project will be a great way to keep kids entertained, and they will have a souvenir from the party. Consider supplying rubber gloves and doing the project outdoors. You might also want to ask other parents to help out when you plan to do a project of this nature.
Invitations:
Be sure to add all pertinent party information to the invitations, including a reference to the project and a note that children should wear play clothes. You can use the included image to print out for invitations. Using a paint program on your computer, you can create a tie-dye look, or you can cut out t-shirt shapes and let children decorate the invitations with different colors of glitter. For single layer invitations, just write or print information on the back. For invitations that open, print t-shirt patterns with enough room to fold over and cut the image (without cutting all the way through).
Cake:
You can print out a large t-shirt image or trace an actual shirt onto heavy paper to create a pattern. Cut out and place on top of cooled 13”x 9” cake and mark with toothpicks. Use a sharp knife to cut out the t-shirt shape (adults should handle this step). Frost and decorate. Splashes of colored sugar crystals will help create the tie-dye effect.
Variation:
If you aren’t up for doing the tie-dye thing you can allow kids to design their own t-shirts using fabric paints. You can still do the shirt cake and invitations, leaving off the tie-dye decorations.