I'm a visual learner...tie dye?

[LissaW16]

hey all - I keep this page bookmarked for inspiration, but I just don't have the ambition to read all through to get one question answered...

I'm using Dharma dyes (fiber reactive procion) made with the recommended urea - I mixed up 2 cups of each of three colors, and ended up only using about 1/3 of each squirt bottle on my 7 shirts (2 kids, 5 adults). My question is - can I "keep" pre-mixed dye?

I have half a thought of dying some cotton muslin fabric to make a new Fish Extender, but I'm not exactly ready (haven't measured/cut/washed/tied) - can I stick the bottles of dye in the fridge or something?

I didn't find anything on the FAQ page on the Dharma website.

Anyone have any experience here?

 

[LissaW16]

one more random thought - the Dharma website (where I printed off the directions) says tie first, soda ash soak next, then dye.

of course, this makes for difficult wringing (the cinnamon-rolls are hard to squeese out) and probably explains why I used so little dye - the shirts were literally dripping dye probably because they were soaking wet of soda ash water.

anyone get good results with tie-soak-dye rather than soak-wring-tie-dye?

I don't know if I can wait 24 hours, I'm DYING (dyeing? lol) to see how these turned out. I did some a few years ago (red white & blue, as seen in my sig) - this time I went "caribbean" with two shades of blue and one green...

Last time I did them, I did soak, dry (my error), tie, dye (dry shirts = LOTS of Tulip dye and 3 trips to Michaels)...

 

[LissaW16]

They are kind of more white than I wanted (I think because they were too wet with soda ash water) but I am thrilled with the Mickey head definition!

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[brettcw23]

I've made the shirts for 3 of our last 4 trips. This time we are going to be there for the MNSSHP. Going with the Halloween theme, I wanted to use Halloween-ish colors. I am a Dharma zealot, so I am looking for specific colors from them. My initial thoughts are orange, purple and green, My wife is a traditionalist and wants the Mickey heads to be done with black dye. Thoughts from you all?

 

[Angela72181]

I know there are a lot of different ways to technically do this, but I found a kit clearanced at Hobby Lobby and picked it up. My question is what is the best thread / material to use to stitch the Mickey Head? I had originally thought fishing thread, BUT read that Dental Floss would be good as well but it had to be unscented...

Opinions? I will be working on these this weekend as we leave in 29 days

 

[djmeredith]

I use waxed unflavored dental floss as recommended on this board on 3 batches of shirts over the last few years. I have found that the trick to getting good definition of the outline is to pull the floss as tight as possible and then putting 1-2 inches of super tight rubber bands below the puckered part. I personally think the wider rubber bands work better. Another tip I learned is to start and end your stitching inside the shirt so that you can tie it off on the inside to avoid a big dot of white where you tied off the floss.