Stars and Stripes Dye Job

With Independence Day coming up, today, I'm going to dye the head of an old lacrosse stick in the pattern of the American flag.

Here's what you'll need:
1 Turkey roasting pan
1 Blue RIT dye pack
1 Red RIT dye pack
1 Unstrung white lacrosse head
Electric tape
Star stickers

Step 1: Prepare the head
The first step is to put electrical tape of the parts of the head that you don't want dyed. I'm going to dye the top corner blue first so I've used the electric tape to mark where I want to the blue color to stop when I'm finished dying it. I decided to make things a little easier and dye the entire throat red, so the 13th stripe on the flag will be longer than the other 12. I wanted to keep proportions of the blue corner correct, so I went ahead and marked off the stripes for when I dye the red. The black electric tape will be the white stripes when the head is done. For the stars, I recommend finding a sticker pack that has star stickers. I used a pattern and cut them out with electric tape, but it was a big pain to do...and it took forever.

Step 2: Dying the blue
To get ready to dye, first you boil water. Once the water is boiling, dump it in the turkey roaster and add the dye. Make sure the water is deep enough to submerge as much of the head as you plan on dying. The store only had navy blue dye, so to achieve the blue on the flag, I just won't leave it in the dye as long. The hotter the water is, the faster the plastic will dye. When the plastic is the color you want, run it under cold water, as this will shock the dye and keep it from running. (The dye looks darker than the picture indicates).







Step 3: Preparing to dye the red
Now, you need cover the corner you just dyed blue with electric tape before you put it in the red dye. If you haven't already covered what you want to be your white stripes, you need to do do that before putting the head in the red dye. You can use the same turkey roaster for the red dye, just dump it out first.

Step 4: Dying the red
Now, just drop the head into the red dye and wait for it to reach the color you want. Be sure to rinse it in cold water when you're done and then remove the duct tape. Hopefully it turned out good. I'm a little disappointed in the way mine came out, especially the stars and the running of both colors,but I'm okay with it. This is by far the most complicated dye job I've ever tried.

Step 5: String it up
After the head is dyed, you can string up and then you're ready to play.

If anyone has any ideas on another pattern they'd like to see me try, and then use my instructions/mistakes to make it better when they try it, let me know in the comments. Just keep in mind, it'll probably be a while before I can afford another head to experiment on.