Faded looking Tie Dyed shirts. Help, plz!

[AMaloy314]

I made the Mickey Head tie dye shirt this weekend and everything seemed to go great, until they dried. Even before I washed them, they looked faded. Almost like they had been washed and worn 100 times.

I followed the instructions that I found here. 100% cotton shirts. Washed and dried with NO fabric softener of dryer sheet prior to coloring. Used "Ultimate Tie-Dye Kit" by Rainbow Rock from Hobby Lobby. No Rit Dye! Soaked the shirts in soda ash fixer for 20 minutes before coloring. No rinse after fixer. Left shirts wet with dye for over 12 hours - directions said 4-8 or longer. Once I rinsed the dye out and removed the rubber bands and thread, I line dried the shirts before washing in hot water. They looked pretty faded when I took them off the line, but didn't get worse after the wash, so I'm thinking I did something wrong in the dye process.

Does anyone have any idea what I did wrong? Maybe I didn't get enough fixer out of the material before coloring?


Other than the fading, the shirts turned out great! Thanks for the tips and ideas!

A

 

[tatooed goofy]

It is hard to say. I have tried lots of dyes and for some reason, I use the rit dye and my colors are always so vibrant. I also put a little salt and vinegar sometimes in to set the colors. Maybe you had too much water and the colors were lighter therefore. I bet they look great. Post a pic. I would love to see them. At least you know You did it and nobody will look like you! That should be a proud thing!!!

 

[babytrees]

was the dye already a liquid or did you add water? It sounds like too much water in the dye....we also found that the store bought dyes are all a little on the faded side......I have found a local tie dye dealer......boy do they POP!!

Could you have not "soaked" the areas in dye? As we've gotten better(and on advice from tie dye guy) we have learned to "soak" the area to be dyed in color....and making sure to get all of the folds.

I am sure they are still great!! Please post pic's!!