Tie Dying Central!

I added up that since June I have tie dyed somewhere around 75 shirts. Our church high school group did their rendition of Godspell this past weekend, so my boss had asked for me to tie dye some shirts for the kids. I also made a tie dye shirt for each member of the Hungary team.

I really don't mind doing it at all, actually I kind of enjoy it! I've done this for a long time...back when I worked camp at the Y, and I'm sure even times before that! One thing that I haven't tried is tie dying black shirts, until now. I asked a friend of mine who is helping with the Godspell if he would like me to make him a shirt. He asked if I could make a black one, and the challenge intrigued me. After a few trials and errors I finally figured it out!

Here's how:
Materials:
Tie Dye (I like the kits since they come with squirt bottles)
Rubberbands
Rubber gloves
bleach
water
plastic (to protect your counter tops)

Step 1: Wet the shirt and lay it out flat.

Step 2: Grab the center of the shirt and twist the shirt to create a spiral

 Step 3: Place rubber bands tightly around the shirt to keep the spiral shape.

 

Step 4: Using bleach in one of the squirt bottles add bleach to the shirt. Be sure to get it in between the layers. I like to put bleach on every other section of the shirt. 

  

Step 5: Let the bleach sit until the bleached areas change from "rust" to a "yellowish white" 

  

Step 6: Once the shirt has changed, cut the rubber bands and wash the shirt as usual in the washing machine. 

  

Step 7: Lay the shirt out flat and with the tie dye kit put various colors where you would like them. Try to follow each spiral to be one color. 

Step 8: Allow the dye to sit on the shirt. The longer it sits the better (I try at least 24 hours)

  

Step 9: Rinse the dye out of the shirt until the water runs clear.  

 

Step 10: Allow the shirt to air dry. Wear and enjoy! 

 

 

This really turned out better than I thought it would! 

 

Coming soon...Godspell pictures...but I have to sift through the 1,335 that I took and pick which ones I want to post!