The making of a Socktosquid, part 1.

Halloween is fast approaching, and in an effort to break the mad cycle of a mom sitting up late into the night sewing a costume the night before the 'Big Day' (Halloween was very important in our house, and ALWAYS handmade) I am getting a head start on Johnny's! 

We are going Trick-or-Treating with some friends on base and they have a few kids who are going to be pirates. Nice and easy for me, especially with the sweet dreads I'm sporting lately! But Johnny? Can't say I've ever seen a baby pirate. I do, however, think that every serious pirate should have a pet squid.

So there it is, a squid, randomly made from discarded socks. Kind of a play on the socktopus. 

So, to start, you need socks. Lots of them. I raided Chris's socks that he never ever throws away. I dumped them into the bathtub and covered them with warm water.

Using a washing machine dye kit I mixed in the salt fixative and orange liquid dye.

After awhile I let it drain and squeezed out as much liquid as I could.

Then I mixed red dye in a bucket of warm water and salt fixative.... and shivered a little at the Carrie-esque site.

... then had a ton of fun splashing the dye into the socks to give them a variegated color scheme.

In the morning I squeezed them out again and ran them through the wash.

They then had to be cut up so that I had consistent flat pieces to sew together. I tossed the heals and toes because I'm really not sure what I could use them for (and many had huge holes anyway!).

So I will continue this when it starts coming together a little more. I think it will be adorable and hilarious!

A friendly suggestion: Maybe think twice before using the forty year old bathtub in your rented house to dye anything blood-red.  :-/