Oh how I love me some tye dye. I love the look of it, I love the fun of it and I love that you don't know what it's gonna turn out like till you unravel it. What I didn't expect was the mine field of contradicting information on google and youtube about it, literally watching 100s of tutorials at 2 am. At some point you just have to say fuck it and do it.
I bought a pack of 5 fruit of the loom t shirts on amazon for under £15, I already had the sachets of dye from Dylon (planned to do this last summer and never got round to it). The game changer though, I got a pack of 8 squeezey bottles off amazon (thank god for amazon) for about £15 too. They made life so much easier. Especially as I wanted different colours on all the designs. I ended up buying 2 sweaters and a hoody, fruit of them loom too because I can't do things in halves. All or nothing. I'm gonna do a little step by step of what I did, mainly so I know for next time and don't have to trawl all the info again.
- Wet the fabric your dying in the sink. Ring it out so it isn't soaking.
- Tie it up with elastic bands in different designs. I did 2 swirl t shirts and a jumper. 2 crumpled t shirts, 1 jumper and 1 hoody and a sun burst t shirt. I wanted some white to show through so I tied some of them quite tight. Put them to one side.
- Mix the dye (wear gloves!) Put approx half the sachet of dye into squeeze bottle. Add 1 tbsp of salt and fill the bottles to the top with hot water out the tap.
- Dye your fabric! Think about where you want colours or just chuck it on. Once dyed, wrap in cling film and put in carrier bag. Leave for 24 hrs.
- After 24 hrs, take them out the bags and rinse in cold running water until all the excess dye comes out and water runs clear. I had this take 2 mins - 30 mins. I guess some colours just hold more and take more rinsing.
- Put in washing machine on cold, quick wash with small amount of detergent. I grouped them together in colours so I wasn't just washing 1 item at a time.
- Let them air dry.
Just for reference I used passion pink, peony pink, goldfish orange, sunflower yellow, tropical green, paradise blue, china blue, navy and deep violet. In my defence, they were only £2.99 a sachet and I didn't buy them all at once.
I think they turned out pretty good and look how cheerful they are. Summer wrote all over them!
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