Tie Dye Instructions for Spiral Mickey Shirt

[turning40withMickey]

Haven't mastered the resizing yet, but here are DH and DS's blue, green and yellow shirts. I outlined the mickey on DH's shirt in blue, then again in green and yellow and really liked the result, so I did DS's shirt too.

 

[turning40withMickey]

My second posted picture! Woo Hoo! I promise to learn to resize today before posting any more.

The girls shirts, started out as three colors and then I couldn't "waste" the extra dye, so I added blue and green to them, too. I love them! My yellow mickey is the one that had yellow as the next color under the rubberband, so it didn't stand out, but the yellow fabric paint ouline makes it work.

 

[MNRMommy]

My second posted picture! Woo Hoo! I promise to learn to resize today before posting any more.

The girls shirts, started out as three colors and then I couldn't "waste" the extra dye, so I added blue and green to them, too. I love them! My yellow mickey is the one that had yellow as the next color under the rubberband, so it didn't stand out, but the yellow fabric paint ouline makes it work.

Love the outlining. I bought some paints recently to do just that thing to spruce ours up before the next trip.

 

[SqueakyMouse]

I've had great success using this dye, Dyson permenant fabric dye
http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog.jsp?CATID=cat3780&PRODID=prd45370&source=search do a search
colors are very vibrant and hold up well. They also have beautiful colors like lime green and fuschia and turquoise.

A local fabric store just got some of these in (only basic colors at this point since they are just starting to stock them), so I scooped up a couple of packets (yellow and purple) to try to doctor-up the shirts I did the other day. The two shirts I tried this on are soaking I type this. I followed the directions on the package of yellow (more orangey looking than the bright yellow on the package) but probably should not have. This dye does not appear to be anywhere as strong as the Tulip dye I used the other day. It reminds me of the old Ritz dyes. The positive is that it makes 4 cups worth of dye. The bad part is that I put an entire cup's worth of dye on each shirt and it still didn't look like much. Well, we'll see.

I did notice that my Hobby Lobby has gotten in a Tulip kit with a much better assortment of colors than the one I used the other day.

 

[nts4wdw]

This is for you, MNRMommy! Thanks again for the great instructions!

 

[turning40withMickey]

This is for you, MNRMommy! Thanks again for the great instructions!

Great shirts and family photo! IS that your "free" one for having the Disney Visa? Fabulous!

 

[MNRMommy]

This is for you, MNRMommy! Thanks again for the great instructions!

LOVE IT !!!! wonderful shirts. They really came out great!! Also, I can't wait to hear all about your trip!!! If that was a pic you took as part of some deal as a Disney Visa Card Holder tell me more please. I didn't know there were any special perks for us card holders other than the lovely disney points that will help pay for my theme park tickets.

 

[SqueakyMouse]

The Dyson dye did just fine. I soaked the 2 shirts I re-dyed in soda ash before doing this. I'm not sure if I should have, but I figured it couldn't hurt. Then, I followed the directions for mixing the dye but not for applying it. (Directions are only for dying an item that one solid color.) The dye looked really weak at first, but the color took to the shirt as well (if not better) than the much darker appearing Tulip dye. The package said to soak the cloth for one hour, but I soaked one shirt for 6 hours and one for 8. I wish that I had left them overnight, but this was an experiment. I used an entire cup of dye (an entire plastic Tulip bottle) on each shirt (one small boy's and one toddler's) and still didn't have as much color on it as I would like. Thus, I think the Dyson dyes are a much better deal than most. For about $2.50, you get 4 cups-worth of dye. Some other positives about Dyson Dye: It didn't stain my hands. (Of course, I only tried yellow.) Also, for some reason, it didn't seem to spatter like the Tulip dye did.

I'm off to the store later today today to buy some more Dyson Dye. I'll master this project yet!!

 

[LisaG]

Here are my tees, sans Mickey head:

They turned out better than I had thought. DS's shirt turned out the best - the first one - and DD's - the second one - there was a lot of brown where the excess dyes hit the yellow. Due to time constraints (I'm packing for vacation as I type this message!) I let them sit for 20 hours before washing & rinsing when the instructions called for 24 hours. So, it won't really matter too much if you need to cut the dying time a bit short.

The colors are a lot more vibrant in person.

I won't bind the next set to tightly. That will help distribute the dyes in the center. That should help keep the colors from blending together as much. DD's has a lot of brown in it, which I'm not thrilled with, but it'll work. I bet she won't even notice!

My only tip from this is that if you want purple in addition to the red, blue & green that comes with the kits, purchase an extra kit and mix some to use separately. I tried for purple just by mixing on the shirts, and it turned out almost brown.

I'll try to post photos of the finish shirts with the transfers on them if I have time. I'm still trying to keep them a secret from the kids!

Quilty Mom,
Love your shirts! How do you do the spiral design without Mickey's Head?

 

[Gillian]

How do you mix the dyson dye? Do you use a whole package for 1 cup water? Maybe you could buy 2 and use it more concentrated.

The dye I used from dharma trading did stain my hands but came off by the next day or two. dharmatrading.com

For the colors that came with my kit (the little group one), I used 1 teaspoon per cup. For each color I made 2 bottles of 16 oz, and had dye powder left over.

I soaked the shirts in soda ash and also added urea to the water before I mixed it into the dye.

 

[Gillian]

Quilty Mom,
Love your shirts! How do you do the spiral design without Mickey's Head?

I'm not Quilty Mom, but I can answer since I'm here. My shirts are in post 126, the giant picture (sorry, I don't know how to resize) with the sofa full of tie dyes.

You do the same thing as in the first post except you skip the mickey head and just twist the shirt! I used damp shirts and layed each one flat. You pinch up the center (even with the bottom of the underarms) and just twist into a danish and put rubber bands on.

I did 3 rubber bands to divide into 6 sections. I alternated red & blue dye. But you can do one third each of red, blue, yellow. or whatever.

 

[LisaG]

Here's another gigantic picture of half of the shirts after washing & drying. I'm pretty happy with them. It was so much fun rinsing and untieing them - we couldn't wait to see what each one looked like!

Thanks for a quick response! Now, if I can just get the nerve up to try it!

 

[nts4wdw]

LOVE IT !!!! wonderful shirts. They really came out great!! Also, I can't wait to hear all about your trip!!! If that was a pic you took as part of some deal as a Disney Visa Card Holder tell me more please. I didn't know there were any special perks for us card holders other than the lovely disney points that will help pay for my theme park tickets.

Yes, this is our free Visa Photo! It's located in Innoventions in Epsot. It's the one to the right after Spaceship Earth. (Don't know if that is East or West.) I"m pretty sure it's weekday afternoons, after 1:30. There's a CM ho checks your Card, then just your family is allowed in to play with the characters. They take your picture and you can go to the photo center and pick it up right away. You have to picked it up that day. It really is fun. We try to go everytime.

 

[Beckysc]

I've tie dyed shirts a couple times. Instead of the swirl, I did a sunburst design with the mickey head in the center with two different colors for a total of three colors. I did a bunch of shirts and used more dye in the tie died rings...for the rest of the shirt, I just sprinkled all three dye colors in random pattern and then kind of rubbed it in. It looked great and it didn't take as much dye as the swirl kind because I didn't have to saturate the whole shirt.

 

[mom2mykids]

I've tie dyed shirts a couple times. Instead of the swirl, I did a sunburst design with the mickey head in the center with two different colors for a total of three colors. I did a bunch of shirts and used more dye in the tie died rings...for the rest of the shirt, I just sprinkled all three dye colors in random pattern and then kind of rubbed it in. It looked great and it didn't take as much dye as the swirl kind because I didn't have to saturate the whole shirt.

I'd love to see a picture if you have one. Thanks!

 

[Beckysc]

Here is the front.



and the back. I just used the squeeze bottle and shook random drips and blobs on the back and the rest of the shirt that wasn't drawn up in the rubber bands in the front where the mickey head was and kind of rubbed and blended them together. I wanted to make sure I didn't have any white areas so I kept turning the shirt every which a ways to make sure I had good coverage.

 

[mom2mykids]

Cool, thanks for posting the pics! I have so many ideas! I better get moving....its July and we go in September!

Here is the front.



and the back. I just used the squeeze bottle and shook random drips and blobs on the back and the rest of the shirt that wasn't drawn up in the rubber bands in the front where the mickey head was and kind of rubbed and blended them together. I wanted to make sure I didn't have any white areas so I kept turning the shirt every which a ways to make sure I had good coverage.

 

[turning40withMickey]

Here is the front.



and the back. I just used the squeeze bottle and shook random drips and blobs on the back and the rest of the shirt that wasn't drawn up in the rubber bands in the front where the mickey head was and kind of rubbed and blended them together. I wanted to make sure I didn't have any white areas so I kept turning the shirt every which a ways to make sure I had good coverage.

WOW, the mickey head looks really great! Great idea, seems easy, too!

 

[Beckysc]

It really didn't use much dye compared with dying the whole shirt.

I did have a friend help with the dying. She helped hold the shirts and kept turning them. She also would kind of pry apart the rubber bands to make sure that the inside was getting enough dye.

I used the tulip paint kit and the soda ash and I wrapped the shirts up in plastic bags and let them sit for 24 hours.

This year, I'm looking into ordering some dye from that link that was posted earlier.

 

[Praise God]

Ok, I am finally ready to do this tomorrow.
I bought the kit with 3 colors and read the directions.
It says to mix the whole thing of soda ash and the whole bottles of dye.
I am only doing 2 shirts - do I have to mix the whole bottles?
If I do it says to use it within 2 weeks.
Unless this gets messed up very badly, I am not planning on doing any more in the near future.

Has anyone tried to mix the soda ash and/or the dye in smaller quantities?
In the meantime, I will be basting the mickey head tonight.