Tie-Dye 101

Welcome to Tie-Dye your Summer Week at Jedi Craft Girl!  This week is going to be so much fun!!!  Everyday we will have new tutorials, techniques and giveaways!!!  Just a warning - Tie-Dye is extremely addicting.  Today's post is all about the basics of Tie-Dye...everything you need to know to get started.

Meet the instructors:

Jeff, my brother.  He has his Masters in Fine Art, teaches art classes in college, sells paintings and photographs, plays guitar, and he is our Tie Dye Master! Check out his art HERE.  (We were all raised in Northern California, so tie-dye might be in our blood!)

Me - color expert and the girl that is good with a needle and thread

 Megan, my sister-in-law.  She is the perfectionist.  Her folding techniques are amazing and she has the most patience out of the 4 of us!
                                          

Melinda, my sis.  She goes out on a limb on her designs and has great ideas for dying children's clothing.  She blogs at Ketchup and Pickles.

Fabrics:
100% cotton shirts and clothing work the best.
95% cotton 5% spandex - these work good as well
50% cotton 50% polyester - Stay away from this combination - colors will be muted, there will be a light fuzz over the dye and they just don't look good.
The key is to have a good quality cotton.

Prep your clothing:
If your clothes have never been laundered, run them through a light wash or a rinse cycle.  If you have shirts that you want to pre shrink, rinse them and then put them in the dryer, then rinse them again.

Your clothes need to be damp (not wet) to tie...despite what the directions say.
Giant batch of damp shirts!!

It is 106 degrees as we are doing this project - so we are in our swim suits.  We alternated swimming and tying for about 8 hours - almost 200 shirts.

Soda Ash:
You can dye your shirts without soda ash - but we all agree that this helps keep the colors vibrant.  The package instructions say to soak your shirts in the soda ash for 20 minutes.  We have tried this method and found the shirts were too wet and very drippy which makes the colors run.

We developed a new method which will let you maximize your soda ash.  Mix the soda ash according to the instructions (1 package makes 1 gallon).  Place in spray bottles.  We sprayed our shirts with the soda ash before we tied them.  I like this the best.

Prepare your work station:
You need to have a flat work surface to tie your shirts on.  We had 4 adults working at once so we needed a few tables.  Here is our set up:

Spray both sides of your shirt with the soda ash mixture.

It's best to wear tie-dye and listen to hippie music while doing this!!!

Tying:
This is the fun creative part.  There are so many ways to tie your shirt: classic spiral, double spiral, triple spiral, deep V, stripes, scrunch, etc.  This week I will be featuring different ways you can tie your shirt. You need rubber bands, string, and maybe a needle and thread.  I like to put my tied shirt into a baggie and label it so when it comes to dying I know what I am doing.  This shirt was a crazy tie design:

The Dye:

We used Tulip brand Tie-Dye.  They offer a wide range of colors, it's not too expensive, and it's sold at all craft stores and Wal Mart.  We have a lot of dye!

The caps are colored.  Once the caps are removed and the dye is mixed, it's impossible to tell which color is which.  Using a Sharpie, write the color of the dye on the top of the bottle - this makes it SUPER EASY!

Mix the Dye:
The dye comes in the bottles and you fill the bottle up with water and shake.  The dye is best used within 30 minutes of mixing.  After that the colors can loose intensity.

Dying:
Wear gloves!!!
Work fast but carefully
Consider your color choices before you mix the dye - it saves time.
Set up a rack on top of a bucket or bowl.  The dye will run off an needs somewhere to drip.
Wear old clothes or tie-dye - it can be messy.

Once the dying is done, wrap the shirt in plastic wrap or a baggie. The instructions say to let sit 6-8 hours.  I wait at least 12 hours.  It's really hard to wait to see how they turn out!

Final Thoughts: After you have waited about 12 hours, unwrap your shirt and cut off the string or rubber bands.  I like to hang my shirt up and let it dry completely.  Then rinse each shirt in the faucet or the hose and squeeze as much dye out as you can.  Then, put them through the rinse cycle in your washer and dry them.  I rinse like colors together.  Now you are ready to wear your awesome Tie-Dye Shirt!!!

Click HERE to learn how to make a classic spiral shirt. Click HERE to for bullseye instructions. Click HERE to learn how to put designs in the middle of your tie-dye.