One of my loyal readers noticed that I was going off to tie dye. I believe I read a request for a picture of the results of the proceedings. Okay.
To answer one of the questions: No, tie dye is not hard. It does require some investment in dyes and chemicals, which can add up to quite a lot of money.
And the process that we utilize actually doesn’t actually involve any tie-ing at all. We mostly fold and bunch things in such a way that the colors will appear on the shirt in the sort of pattern we envision. There is some sort of magic involved, and you never really know what you are going to get until you have unwound and unfolded your product, rinsed the excess dye out, washed and dried it.
the havens 
So, you just bunch up the shirt and add some color? Would be a fun party thing to do with my daughter and her friends ….or for me and Shirley to do when we’ve had one too many vodka and kool-aids.
Well, that is a pretty simplistic explanation, but yeah, that is basically it. And it is a lot of fun, and can be a great party thing if you have a good space to do it in.
That pink/red double spiral in the picture was formed in a series of moves. First, the shirt was wetted in a solution of soda ash that allows the dye to penetrate the cotton fibers. Once it was wrung out and laid out neatly on the table, I folded the t-shirt diagonally. Lower corner goes up to around the sleeve. Then you decide where you want the spiral to be, and pinch a small amount of the fabric there. You twist the pinch, and sort of coil up the shirt around that center spot. You wind up with a sort of circular mass of t-shirt. Some people put a rubber band around the outer perimeter for ease of flipping the fabric.The nicer and more evenly and tightly you arrange the resulting folds, the more even the resulting spiral will be. If you want other designs, there are other ways to fold up the shirt. You can also just bunch it up randomly and end up with something very cool.
For a spiral, you take the chosen colors and apply them in wedges that flare out from the center of the coiled shirt. It takes more dye than you think. If you don’t use enough, you will have a lot a white left in your design, sometimes tha t is a good thing. When you have dye on one side, you carefully flip the shirt over and dye the other side. This is where the rubber band can help.
Then you let the shirt sit for an hour or so. then you rinse the excess dye out, and drop the wet shirt into a washing machine full of water and a chemical which is designed to keep extra dye mixed in the water and not deposited all over the washing shirts.
We use Dharma dyes. You need a place where spilled dye will not be a disaster. It is a good idea to protect your countertops with plastic too, or they may become tie dyed along with your shirts.
Oooooh! Next time you do this how about swapping a couple of t-shirts for a nice linen ‘pj-style’ shirt? Don’t worry about ironing – body heat actually works very nicely with this linen. 🙂
I love the colours in the second photo. I tend to wear black and white (or cream) and have three ‘accent colours’ – red, green and purple. No blue – never blue. Anyhoo… just a thought.
Oops, my link didn’t work… trying again.
pj-style shirt
Okay. I’d LOVE a trade like that. And thank heavens I don’t have to iron it. Since I categorically refuse to iron, if it “needed” it I would constantly look rumpled. Oh wait! I look rumpled all the time anyway. Problem solved.
I have really loved the look of your clothing, but find it a little too dear for everyday wear. However, I am about ready to replace a certain item of clothing I wear on a regular basis which is now approximately 22 years old. And I believe that I am going to get one of your dresses for that purpose.
Anyway, the second photo is a closeup of a rainbow spiral. I will get a picture of some other examples of colors and email them to you.
Never blue? Not even for a complete rainbow? Not even for the sky?
I love to tie dye, and I would love to make you a couple of shirts. What size do you like?
Sorry, no blue. I even prefer the reds & pinks of the first photo (and I HATE pink). I don’t actually hate blue, just can’t wear it.
Weird thing about the linen stuff. You iron it, put it on, and within about 15 minutes you look all rumpled … but an hour later you look great. So, I reckon this would work more or less the same if you didn’t bother ironing at all (and if the garment is shaken out and hung to dry immediately after washing).
As for a special order – yes, do email me. I think we’ll be able to offer you a comfortable price, especially as we’re ‘between seasons’ at the moment.
Oh, and a tie-dyed t-shirt would have to be XXXL … almost down to my knees with a crew neck.
Not the slightest bit pernickety, am I ? 😉
It’s your shirt on your body. You should have what you like.
I think I’m going to try that project in the summer. Night shirts are a great idea … a sleepover with a bunch of giggly 10 year old with the tie-dyes night shirts they made.
I would suggest that you practice before the party. If you want you can come down here to my place and we’ll give you a lesson or two. I think that the idea of a tie dye party for ten year olds sounds both wonderfully fun and terrifying. You are brave women to even think about it!
Either brave or just clueless! HA HA! They can do it outside … I think that it might be one of those things where even if it doesn’t work, it’s still fun …
I wish I could come down … I think we live far away
-Laverne
These t-shirts are beautiful. I love the rainbow-coloured one. I dread to think the disaster that would ensue if I attempted to tie-dye (you should have seen what I did the last time I tried to dye my hair), that is why I admire these all the more.
I love the rainbow-coloured one. It reminds me of coral in the ocean. I dread to think the disaster that would ensue if I attempted to tie dye, which is why I admire these all the more. You should see what I did the last time I dyed my hair…
All the more reason to never dye your hair. I could write a whole blog entry about that, and probably will sometime.