Tie Dye Instructions for Spiral Mickey Shirt

[KingdomHearts]

We will be there from Nov 30 - Dec 8 in our Tie dye shirts! Look out! I am so excited... they came out so awesome!

 

[labdogs42]

Hello everyone,
I finally attempted this project last weekend and failed miserably!! I'm not sure what I did wrong, so I'm asking for advice. The Mickey head shape turned out okay on all 7 shirts, but none of my shirts had the "swirl design." I followed the directions from this thread very closely, but none of the shirts had the "crisp" swirl pattern. And, most of my shirts had ALOT of white still on them...I figured the white was because I didn't poke the dye down into the folds good enough. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I leave Mon. and I want to try again.
Thanks!!

P.S. I used Tulip brand primary colors dye from a kit on the mens shirts, and the colors were not vivid at all! Do not use Tulip brand!! However, on the women's shirts I used a bright pink, purple, and turquoise from WalMart (powder packet) and the colors turned out pretty vivid. Now, if I can just get the swirl...ha ha!

Some of my first attempts ended up with too much white. Those are the shirts in the second picture with all the darker blue on them. I re-dyed them! The little one I just splashed blue dye on in a random pattern and on my DH's, I red-did a swirl pattern and tried to cover most of the white. They aren't perfect, but they look better (and more manly) than they did before!

To get the swirl pattern, I twisted the shirts pretty tight, banded only once (about 5-6 rubber bands per shirt) and tried to get the dye down into the folds. I still ended up with some white, but not nearly as much as my first attempts! I also divided my shirt up into sections for the colors. On my purple and green shirt, I had two green sections and two purple sections.

As for the colors, I used the Groovy tie tye kit by Jacquard from AC Moore. I also bought the dark blue dye at AC Moore. It is all fiber-reactive dye. I soaked my shirts in soda ash for 20 minutes before dying them (but after tying them). This time, I also added urea to the dyes to make them brighter (at least that's what it said it would do on the package! I think it worked). They sell the urea at AC Moore, too in the dye section.

I can't wait to see everyone next Wednesday at LOEMH!

 

[quiltymom]

djmeredith,

I think that most of us have had too much white on the first attempt. I know I did, even though I squirted dye into the folds of the fabric.

And as labdogs42 said, if the shirt is banded too tight the dye will not sink down into the fabric. For my last set, I just placed the rubberbands on as is without twisting and going around for a second time. I realized that the bands are there to hold the fabric together.

The tighter the rubber bands, the harder it is for the fabric to get into the folds.

For my last set of shirts, I squirted and squirted dye into the folds of the fabric so that I had dye dripping all over the place. I used 1-1/2 Jacquard kits made for 14 shirts (I still don't know how they came up with that number!) on 4 shirts. I ran out of yellow and had to run to the store to get more.

I did that a bit on my first set, but I was amazed at how much the dye just sits on top of the fabric bundle and does not sink into the folds, even though the shirt is damp/wet when you start.

As for the twist/swirl, I think that it is all relative. Some swirl more than others. It's kinda hard to control, but when applying the dyes try your best to keep the dyes in a wedge shape (smaller near the head and wider at the outside).

But if your Mickey heads turned out great, then that's a more than successful dye job to me! That's the hardest part to do, in my opinion.

Let us know if you have any other questions!

 

[ocd4disney]

Subbing so I don't lose the directions

 

[applechips]

HA! tie dyed undies! I may have to get some ahead of time in case I have extras. That is TOO funny!

Thanks for all the tips; they are very helpful!

Did the instructions tell you to double the turquoise, or did you know to do that on your own???

Yes, Dharma has specific directions for their colors on their site, they said to double it. And yeah I love my tie dyed undies! My kids want them now too!

 

[sjlupin]

I guess I should go to Target and get a bunch of white undies before we start. Tie Dye undies for the whole family!!!

My Dharma box finally came!!!! I have my mickey heads sown, puckered and elasticked (yah, I know, it isn't really a word ) for our first batch. Now we just have to find a time when we are all home for long enough to actually do the project. Fall is nuts with soccer, football, etc, etc.

Wish us luck!!

 

[Praise God]

I had very little white on my shirts.
I tried to post my pictures, but thankfully, I did much better with following the tie dye directions, than I did with how to get it so show as a picture instead of a line that has to be copied and pasted into your browser.
When I did mine I dyed a whole section one color, then overlapped part of that one and part of the white one with the next color. I used most of 1 kit to do 3 shirts. I think there is a little yellow and red left.
At AC Moore there was a book that recommended using paper towels to hold to rest it on as you dyed each side so the colors wouldn't get muddy.
The only thing I did differently after the test one was make Mickey bigger and separate the ears more. It looks more like a heart, than Mickey.

As you do each section, just make sure you check all the folds and keep squirting dye slowly so it soaks it up and doesn't just run out. The project for me was a lot less messy than I expected.

djmeredith,

I think that most of us have had too much white on the first attempt. I know I did, even though I squirted dye into the folds of the fabric.

And as labdogs42 said, if the shirt is banded too tight the dye will not sink down into the fabric. For my last set, I just placed the rubberbands on as is without twisting and going around for a second time. I realized that the bands are there to hold the fabric together.

The tighter the rubber bands, the harder it is for the fabric to get into the folds.

For my last set of shirts, I squirted and squirted dye into the folds of the fabric so that I had dye dripping all over the place. I used 1-1/2 Jacquard kits made for 14 shirts (I still don't know how they came up with that number!) on 4 shirts. I ran out of yellow and had to run to the store to get more.

I did that a bit on my first set, but I was amazed at how much the dye just sits on top of the fabric bundle and does not sink into the folds, even though the shirt is damp/wet when you start.

As for the twist/swirl, I think that it is all relative. Some swirl more than others. It's kinda hard to control, but when applying the dyes try your best to keep the dyes in a wedge shape (smaller near the head and wider at the outside).

But if your Mickey heads turned out great, then that's a more than successful dye job to me! That's the hardest part to do, in my opinion.

Let us know if you have any other questions!

 

[sjlupin]

We just dyed our first batch of shirts and they are tied in plastic wrap and sitting quietly. I am a little nervous to see how they come out. I felt like we were getting dye all over the place, so I'm just not sure if we did all right.

I hope you all are right when you say you really can't screw up tie dye!

 

[sjlupin]

Ok folks ... we've finished our first attempt. They aren't awesome, but they're ok. I think we learned a few things by doing this 1st batch.

Here are the pics:

These are DD10 and DD8s. DD10 (left) doesn't like hers. She likes the Mickey head, but she used orange and blue next to each other and it kind of turned brownish.

This is DS12. We thought we were using Red for the mickey, but it was the fuschia bottle. He doesn't seem to mind.

Here's mine. I thought the mickey was odd, but DD10 thinks it is totally cool. The spiral came out pretty neat.

DH's. Lots of white on his and his left mickey ear is sort of smallish. Cool though.

Last but not least ... the undies!

 

[uncw89]

all I see is red x's, instead of pics

 

[sjlupin]

all I see is red x's, instead of pics

That's so weird ... that happened to me once before. I use Kodak Gallery, I don't know if that is why? I'll try to post them again from Photo Bucket in a bit (I'm at work ... shhhhh)

 

[sjlupin]

Ok, I'm going to try this again ....


DD10 and DD8s:

DS12:

[/IMG]

DH:

[/IMG]

Mine:

The undies! :

Let me know if they are visable this time!

 

[sjlupin]

Ok, I'm going to try this again ....


DD10 and DD8s:

DS12:

DH:

Mine:

The undies! :

Let me know if they are visable this time!

Ok, I don't get it!!! I am pretty sure I am following the directions correctly for posting my pics, but now they are just posted as a URL!?! If you click on it, it should bring the picture up, but why isn't it just displaying. No clue.

 

[labdogs42]

I can see the first set of pictures just fine! Good job on the shirts! We got so many comments and compliments on our shirts when we wore them to the Magic Kingdom. You will have a blast wearing these in the parks!

 

[quiltymom]

When you want to post a photo, you need to click on the icon that has a mountain and a sun in it, next to the "QUOTE" icon. It will bring up another dialog box where you will paste your copied IMG code from photobucket. Just hit enter when it's pasted there, and they will then show on the message.

An will be in the text box, but you can just paste your code over that. If you leave it in, you'll just have an additional IMG besides your posted photo.

Does this help?

P.S. They look great!

 

[sjlupin]

When you want to post a photo, you need to click on the icon that has a mountain and a sun in it, next to the "QUOTE" icon. It will bring up another dialog box where you will paste your copied IMG code from photobucket. Just hit enter when it's pasted there, and they will then show on the message.

An will be in the text box, but you can just paste your code over that. If you leave it in, you'll just have an additional IMG besides your posted photo.

Does this help?

P.S. They look great![/QUOTE]


OKAY! Thanks so much for your post. I realized what I was doing wrong. I have never used photo bucket and I was copying the URL from properties into the popup from the little mountain button. ;) copying the IMG code seems to have worked (I edited my post above).

Initially I was alittle dissapointed in the shirts, but now that I have 'slept on it' :rotfl: I actually like them alot. I learned alot from this first batch too. We're going to definately do some more.

 

[LuvtheEars]

DH and I are leaving in 9 days for our first cruise and I'm going to have to make these to wear! I think I'll do mine in lime green.

Thanks everyone for the great pictures and the visual directions are the best!

 

[sjlupin]

DH and I are leaving in 9 days for our first cruise and I'm going to have to make these to wear! I think I'll do mine in lime green.

Thanks everyone for the great pictures and the visual directions are the best!

Good luck. Post pics if you can!

 

[LuvtheEars]

I had some dye on hand, but did not want to run out and find a shirt. So, I had this turquoise one that had a stain on it that I couldn't remove. Perfect and here it is. . .

front with crystals ironed on to bring out the Mickey. . .

Back. . .

This was a lot of fun and my whole family said they would wear them! (I'm not sure the boys would wear the crystals though.)
I only wear V-neck shirts and was not able to find a shirt at WDW last November, so now I have a great Mickey shirt!

Thanks again for all the advice and instructions on here!

 

[sjlupin]

I had some dye on hand, but did not want to run out and find a shirt. So, I had this turquoise one that had a stain on it that I couldn't remove. Perfect and here it is. . .

front with crystals ironed on to bring out the Mickey. . .

Back. . .

This was a lot of fun and my whole family said they would wear them! (I'm not sure the boys would wear the crystals though.)
I only wear V-neck shirts and was not able to find a shirt at WDW last November, so now I have a great Mickey shirt!

Thanks again for all the advice and instructions on here!

It looks awesome! Where do you get the crystals??? They are way cool.