Name: misty

Message: We need someone to donate some dye for our school. We are looking to tie dye some shirts for all of the students in our school (440 kids). The cost is WAY more then our school can afford. Can you help us in any way?

I'm afraid that I do not have the resources to help you by donating dye or the money with which to buy it, but I can help you by cutting your costs to a small fraction of what they might otherwise be.

If you were to buy all-purpose dye, a hot water dye which is actually quite unsuitable for tie-dyeing, you would pay almost $3 for a box which is sufficient to dye no more than half a pound of material. That adds up fast. If you buy a good tie-dye kit from the local crafts store for $20, which will dye up to 15 shirts, the costs will be lower and the results much better, but it will still cost more than $1 per shirt, which is probably more than you want to spend.

The most economical places to buy large tie-dye kits, suitable for your entire school, are either Dharma Trading Company or PRO Chemical & Dye. (Order from Dharma if you are near the west coast, and from ProChem if you are near the east coast, to reduce shipping costs.) Dharma's Tie-Dye Big Group Kit costs less than $1 per shirt, at  $70 for 100 adult-sized t-shirts. You might be able to dye twice as many small children's t-shirts with the same amount of dye. See "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World" for contact information for dye suppliers.

A bigger question is the cost of the t-shirts, as they tend to cost considerably more than the dye. Do not try to dye 50% polyester shirts, because the resulting colors will be pale pastels. Use only 100% cotton t-shirts. You will probably want to buy one case (72 shirts) in each of the most popular elementary school sizes, because shirts cost less when ordered by the case. Dharma Trading Company sells Fruit of the Loom children's t-shirts for $118 per case, which is far better than you can do for 100% cotton shirts at your local store.

In fact, I think that you are missing an opportunity here. Many PTAs do projects like this one as fund-raisers, charging their students a small fee for materials, and making a tidy profit (assuming that the work of setting up and guiding the children is done for free by parent volunteers). If you follow my advice about ordering dyes and shirts from the most economical sources, your costs will be less than $3 per shirt, but most of your students can probably pay $5 or $10 each, which will provide a wonderful fund-raising opportunity for your school.

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