Everyone has seen clothing items that have been colored by the process known as tie-dyeing; many may have wondered how easy it would be to tie-dye a shirt
When our Life Daily team checked out the subject, they were surprised to learn that it wasn’t nearly as complicated as they had believed.
Provided you’re willing to invest a little time, it is possible to produce some really stunning colors and designs with minimum effort and not much money.
Basically, you just need a white T-shirt, some dye, a little patience, and to follow the 12 steps below.
Of course, as the saying goes, ‘practice makes perfect’, so you may need to experiment a little before achieving exactly what was in your imagination.
But the beauty of the tie-dyeing process is that it’s almost impossible to make a mistake. There’s no such thing – simply a slightly different color mix or pattern, which may turn out better than your original idea!
So, why not give it a try? We’ve made it easy for you with our simple step-by-step instructions. Follow them, and you’ll know how to tie-dye a shirt in minutes
Happy dyeing!
Step 1: The shirt
- The best shirts to use are made from 100% cotton.
- 50% cotton/50% polyester is possible but the colors are not so strong.
- 100% polyester will not work – the dye will wash off.
Step 2: Your choice of dyes
- Dye kits from craft stores come with everything you need.
- They comprise rubber gloves, rubber bands, soda ash,urea, and easy to follow instructions.
- The dyes are in squeeze bottles, just add warm water.
Step 3: The Tools
- If you don’t use a a pre-packaged kit, you will need the following
- Procion dye, rubber bands, rubber gloves, squeeze bottles,urea, soda ash, and paper towels.
- A good dye remover.
Step 4: Soaking the shirt
- Soak the shirt in a solution of warm water and soda ash for about 10 minutes.
- Be sure to have the correct mix of soda ash.
- Do not use water that is too hot or too cold.
- Add a couple of tablespoonfuls of common salt to the mix.
- Make sure the mixture is thoroughly dissolved before adding the shirt.
- Wring the shirt out thoroughly.
- Wear rubber gloves at all times as the soda is caustic and will sting.
Step 5: Tying a rainbow swirl pattern
- Place the shirt on a flat surface.
- Place it right side down, if you want a sharper pattern on the front of the shirt.
- Reverse it if your prefer the pattern on the back.
- Place a dowel rod in the center of the shirt and start turning until you have a nice flat pie shape.
- You can rotate the pin in either direction.
Step 6: Achieving a Pie
- The shirt should be shaped like a pie at this stage.
- Remove the dowel and put on one rubber band.
- The trick is to place the band, without disturbing the shirt.
- Try to ensure that the pie is firm and uniform.
Step 7: Join the band
- Now slip other rubber bands over the pie in various directions.
- Turn the pie over and add more bands.
- It is important to retain the shape.
- Around 10 bands will be sufficient.
- Keep the whole thing as flat as you can.
- The shirt is now ready for dyeing.
Step 8: The Dyeing process
- Cover your working surface with plastic.
- You need to wear old clothes and shoes as the dyes will stain your clothes and everything else.
- Prepare paper towels or rags rags to mop up spills.
Step 9: Actually using the dyes
- Place your shirt “pie” on some paper towels on top of a paper plate on your working surface.
- This makes it easier to flip the whole thing over when dying the other side.
- Wear rubber gloves!
- You only really need three basic colors: fuchsia red, turquoise and lemon yellow.
- To make a rainbow swirl shirt, think of your “pie” is an actual pie chart.
- Working from the center of the shirt, dye one third of the shirt lemon yellow.
- Dye the second third of the shirt fuchsia red and the final third, turquoise.
- Do not leave any white spaces showing – the “white” is hiding within the folds.
- Overlap the colors at the edges of each section to achieve other rainbow colors.
- Always put yellow – (or other light colored dyes) – first. If you cover it up by mistake, it will change to something else (either orange or green) and you can’t reverse the process.
- When you have completed the first side, turn the whole thing over.
- Apply the dye on the second side in the same way..
Step 11: Now you just have to wait
- After completing the dyeing, put the shirt into a zip lock bag and seal it up tight.
- Put the bag in a warm place and leave it for AT LEAST 24 HOURS!
Step 12: Unwrap the shirt wearing rubber gloves!
- Take the shirt out of the bag.
- Rinse the shirt off under cold running water.
- You can remove the bands before or after rinsing.
- BE CAREFUL. If this is your first attempt at tie-dyeing, you will be amazed at the amount of dye that pours out as you are rinsing.
- Keep rinsing until the water runs clear – it may take a while.
- If you followed the instructions, the beautiful pattern will be revealed.
- Now wash your shirt in the normal way in a washing machine (by itself for the first time).
- Some people prefer to continue washing the shirts two or three times on their own, before trusting them with other clothes.
So know that you know how to tie-dye a shirt, how about moving on to something else.
How about a scarf, or perhaps a cotton sheet or some cotton pants or shorts; you’re only limited by your imagination.
If you have other ideas, or any other remarks about tie-dyeing, just tell us in the comments section below.
