Tie-Dye 101 {Symmetry}

 Today's tutorial is all about symmetry.  Let's start with a simple design like a heart:

Pull the front of the shirt out and fold it in half.  The crease should run from the center of the neck to the center of the bottom.  Note: we are only working with the front of the shirt, the back is pulled out of the way.  Draw your symmetrical image with a washable marker.  We drew a heart.

The goal is to gather along the heart so that it can be tied in a single line.  The gathers should form a straight line.  Keep gathering all the way around the heart.  Tie with rubber bands.  You will need another set of hands - one to hold the design in place and one to tie it.

Once you get the heart tied, you can decide what to do on the back - you can scrunch and bunch, add nubs, bullseye, swirl, etc.  Tie that all up with rubber bands.

To die the heart - choose your center heart color.  The heart will look like a little gathered ball.  Dye the heart.   Then do a thin accent line along the center heart color, then dye your surrounding shirt color.  It should look something like this when it's done:

Deep "V"
For the deep "V" fold the entire shirt in half and draw your V line like this:

Make small folds along the line until the entire shirt is gathered along the line.

Tie rubber bands along the line, we used string because the rubber bands were hard to get under the center of the shirt.  Tie lines going out keeping the folds.  In this picture you can see the yellow line, and the folds going out.  We scrunched the edges.

This is the Deep V after it's died.  The yellow marker line is dyed dark blue and different colors going out (below).

When your design is too complicated to gather by hand......

We are always trying new designs.  Some work, some don't!  Because some of these designs were to hard to gather by hand, we got out the needle and thread.  It's the same technique, only you run a gathering stitch along the market line.  

The shirt below is one my sister attempted a cupcake.  It didn't turn out too bad.  She folded the shirt in half, drew half a cupcake and used a running stitch to gather along the line.  You just have to eyeball how to dye the cupcake top and bottom.

Megan dyed this scary face for my nephew.  Same thing, fold the shirt in half, draw half a scull shape and stitch.  To make the eyes, pull little "nubs" out and rubber band them.  Same with the nose and mouth.  We weren't sure how this one was going to turn out.  It kind of looks like a werewolf scull face.

My daughter did this sea turtle design all on her own.  Same thing, fold in half, draw half a sea turtle.  Stitch up the line.  To get the ring around the turtle, gather a section after the turtle, like you are making a bulls eye and rubber band.  

This is Ella's cat - supposed to look like her Bangle cat.  Maybe we will paint eyes on it or something.

Megan's black cat turned out the best.  It is totally purrrrfect!!

This is also my daughter's design - an octopus/squid type creature.  She did a great job on it.  

This process takes more time, but you can get super creative!  

Tie-Dye 101 {Circles}

 Today is all about circles.  The first technique is the "Bullseye".

Step #1: Decide where you want the center of your Bullseye.  In this example I am centering it to the side.

Step #2: Rubber Bands - start section off your bullseye with rubber bands.  Begin with a small section, add a rubber band:

Now add another section.  The number of sections will determine the number of rings on your bullseye.

This shirt has 5 rubber bands - so it will have 5 sections.  The rest of the shirt just scrunch and bunch and rubber band into place.

Step #3 Dye - dye the sections different colors.  The first section is the center of the bullseye.  I dyed this one in this order:  lime, fuchsia, blue, yellow, blue, green, then random colors on the scrunch.

Another bullseye:

Double Bulls Eye

To make a double bulls eye, you follow the same technique, only with 2.  Decide where you want the centers to be.  For this shirt we placed the centers over the shoulder then the opposite bottom corner. 

 Scrunch the middle and hold in place with rubber bands.

This is how it turned out once it was dyed - I love it!! 


Second circle technique we call "The Nubs"

Pull small portions of fabric and rubber band them, just like you were beginning a bulls eye.  You can even do a double or triple nubs.  Tie these all over the shirt randomly.  (You are also gathering the back of the shirt at the same time so the pattern will be on the back as well.)

Add your dye to the background first - on this one we mixed orange and fuschia.

Then add color to the top of your "nubs".  This one we dyed black and purple on the background and lime on the nubs.

 When it's untied, there are circles all over the shirt:

 We tried one placing the nubs around the neck like a necklace, I didn't get a photo of it.  You can start getting creative and combining techniques - maybe a spiral and a few nubs on the corner or a bulls eye and a spiral.  The possibilities are endless!!

Tie-Dye 101 {the classic spiral|}

(above center spiral with purple and black dye)

Ah, the Classic Spiral.  My favorite Tie-Dye design.  I can't get enough of this simple fold. 

Prep:

Follow the steps HERE to make sure your shirt and dye are prepared correctly.

To achieve the tightest spiral, you want to flip your shirt over so you are working with the back of the shirt.  Lay it out flat on your work surface.  Decide where you want the center of your spiral - this will make a huge difference in the design.  Here we are pinching the center of the spiral at the bottom left corner.

Spiral:
Pinch tightly and begin a slow turn - you decide if it should be clock-wise or counter clock-wise.  Hold the fabric tightly as you swirl it.  Help the pleats along to keep them crisp.

Continue turning the shirt until the entire shirt is incorporated in the spiral. (the example below we are spiraling from the center)

 Keep in place with 3-4 rubber bands like this:  When you flip your shirt over to the front, you will see how nice and tight the spiral is on the front.

Dying:
Decide how many colors you want in your shirt.  Choose sections like a pie and fill in with colors.  Play around with making small pie sections and large sections and using different colors.  Once you have died the front, turn it over and dye the back.  You can choose to follow the same color pattern, or off set the colors by 1 or do totally different colors.  Each will provide a different effect.

The shirt below is dyed using the "pie section" technique, spiral on the shoulder. Colors: blue, purple, orange, lime

Pie section technique, spiral in the center. Colors: yellow, lime, purple, turquoise black

This shirt we did not color in pie sections, rather, we followed the swirl.  We call it "spiderweb".  This will make the spiral pattern a little different.  We used teal and black dye.  Alternate the spiral with your colors.

 Here it is finished

This one was dyed the same way:

This one also:

This spiral is dyed with the center one color and then colored rings going out...kind of like a bulls eye.


This is how it looks once it's dyed:

This one was dyed the same way - only with a larger yellow center:

This baby onsie was dyed in a pie pattern with fuchsia and purple dye.

These Red Spirals are died using only red dye and leaving white spaces on the pie.  We centered the spiral on the bottom, left side.  We will be wearing them to the Taylor Swift RED concert!!!

You can see how using more dye results in less white showing and less dye allows more white to show.  It's a preference.  I like white showing in my shirts and my brother like the shirts completely colored.

This swirl is centered over the shoulder.  I used blue, orange, and fuchsia dye.

You can take the spiral to the next step and do a double or triple spiral.  For this shirt, we spiraled over the shoulder then at the opposite bottom corner.  We spun the spirals away from each other.  I love this one - it's one of my favorites!

Another double spirial:

Now it's your turn to try a spiral!  You will love all the possibilities!!