Tie Dye Instructions for Spiral Mickey Shirt

[stacielee]

Subscribing!!

 

[PixieDust32]

welcome stacie!!!

 

[MNRMommy]

Just dropped in to check on my little ole thread and dang it has gotten big. Ironically I have some questions For those of you who have done black how do you control it best? DH is determined to make black and white ones for our upcoming trip. I think that sounds extremely boring.

I am also making him make us Christmas colored ones. Am thinking of tackling sweatshirts too (anyone else do this successfully?).

Anywho, I don't get on here much so thanks to all of you awesome crafters for keeping this thread moving!!!

 

[PixieDust32]

I'd done black and is tricky because is travels to the lighter colors, thank god for the syntrhopol (spelling?) the detergent helps you stop the spreading and also don't dry them completly in the dryer, the black will get everywhere.

 

[LydiaAch]

I am SO doing this for our next trip!

 

[PixieDust32]

 

[PixieDust32]

Hi girls! How ya'll doing with your projects? here o couple pics.... (you can view more in my album)

Let me tell you, it was a new one for me trying to stop the black for running wild all over the white, I have to wash them twice with the Synthrapol, then a few minutes in the dyer on low, after that i hung them to dry. I was very happy with the way they turned out, the white is well pretty white.

 

[PixieDust32]

Love the combination of these 2 colors.

 

[PixieDust32]

Just dropped in to check on my little ole thread and dang it has gotten big. Ironically I have some questions For those of you who have done black how do you control it best? DH is determined to make black and white ones for our upcoming trip. I think that sounds extremely boring.

I am also making him make us Christmas colored ones. Am thinking of tackling sweatshirts too (anyone else do this successfully?).

Anywho, I don't get on here much so thanks to all of you awesome crafters for keeping this thread moving!!!

ohh now look what you did? Just kidding.

About the sweatshirts, I had only found 50/50, I got a 100% cotton hoodie but is not think like a sweatshirt, I'll try and see. I'll let you know if I found 100% sweatshirts. I want to make me one for Halloween, we go to the pumpkin patch every year to the North Georgia Mountains and I would love to wear one for the pictures.

 

[BWVNUT]

Love the combination of these 2 colors.

GORGEOUS!!!!

 

[PixieDust32]

Thank you

 

[Bondfan531]

Love the combination of these 2 colors.

Oh snap!!! I really like this one!!!!

 

[Bondfan531]

PixieDust--I know it's been asked 500 times before and I can't find your answer, but what dyes do you use? I have to get cracking on my Christmas ornaments for this year for my people, but once they're done, I hope to do my shirt and my daughter's shirt. I bought a tulip kit, just a 3 color kit with fuschia, yellow and turquoise and I bought a seperate thing of soda ash. I'm so nervous to do this, it's not even funny! You'd think I was working with friggin gold!

 

[PixieDust32]

PixieDust--I know it's been asked 500 times before and I can't find your answer, but what dyes do you use? I have to get cracking on my Christmas ornaments for this year for my people, but once they're done, I hope to do my shirt and my daughter's shirt. I bought a tulip kit, just a 3 color kit with fuschia, yellow and turquoise and I bought a seperate thing of soda ash. I'm so nervous to do this, it's not even funny! You'd think I was working with friggin gold!

Hi, I use Dharma dyes, from dharmatrading.com and loveee them.
I'd use tulip too, if you're using tulip don't fill the bottles all the way, half or 3/4 of bottle would be better for a more intense colors. Soak the shirts in the soda ash for about 15-30 minutes, remove the excess water, just wring them, do not rinse them, just wring them with your hands (use gloves) you have the primary colors kit, you can make green, orange, purple with those 3 as well.
Don't be nervous, have fun

 

[Bondfan531]

Thanks! If our's turn out ok, I'll try to do shirts for my two nieces and my sister-in-law too if she wants one. My husband won't wear one--sourpuss.

 

[PixieDust32]

Thanks! If our's turn out ok, I'll try to do shirts for my two nieces and my sister-in-law too if she wants one. My husband won't wear one--sourpuss.

OK! Good Luck! oh no shame on him JK

 

[PixieDust32]

Some coupons for you guys, just in case....

 

[PixieDust32]

bump!

Where is Tinker? and KT? Where are you girls?

 

[GoofyWalker]

I hope this doesn't come out wrong...I think it's great that there are some of you who do this "professionally" and help everyone out with tips and ideas, etc. If it wasn't for you guys I wouldn't have be brave enough to try this. HOWEVER, not everyone can afford to order and ship in the expensive dye or have access to the medium expensive craft store stuff.

I went into my project as a way to do cheap matching shirts for 19 people at WDW. I bought the 5 packs of 100% cotton shirts, the Dylon & RIT dyes from Wal-mart. I do have a Michael's in the nearby large city so was able to get some soda ash. I washed my shirts without fabric softener, soaked them in the soda ash for 20-30 minutes each.

I do not use the full instructions on the dyes, since I wasn't using the dye as the instructions implied. I mixed each full package of RIT with 2 gallons of very hot water. The Dylon I mixed each packet with 4 cups of warm water. I did add the small amount of salt recommended on the packages, because I didn't know if it was important or not. Then I filled my little bottles (I used the bottles from the housewares section of wal-mart for $1 each - I think they are for vinger & oil, ketchup, etc.) and dyed like crazy. I did know I was using "weaker" dye, so I let them sit in there plastic wrap for 48 hrs.

And my shirts turned out quite well, as did those of my 2 sisters who were doing some also. Yes, when I did the first wash they faded a little. But not an insane amount. And now we will wear them on our trip. And after that I will wash them again and maybe they will fade some more, I don't know. But as shirts for a specific trip or event they will do excellectly. If we can wear them again, GREAT! If not, no big deal. Maybe I dye the same ones again next time.

I will say that the RIT did fade a little more than the Dylon. So if I do it again, I'll either avoid the RIT (I had to get it this time because my store was out of red & green in the Dylon) or try it again using less water.

Here's a just a few of my shirts (I've posted in this thread before but god knows I won't find that post again, LOL):

Again, I don't want this to come across harshly to anyone, I just want people to realize there ARE options. If I had the recent rash of negative and/or "Dharma only" posts I wouldn't have bothered to even try this project. And I would have missed out on some great shirts.

beldred and all,

Boy, a short time away and you have "10" new pages to catch up on! Whew!!

Guess I'm a dye snob!! 'Cause I don't want to ever do my shirts with RIT dye. And I am nowhere near a professional, just hooked on tie-dyeing Mickey Head Spirals!!

I am glad you got great results with RIT dye. And I love how your shirts turned out, especially the green and purple one! I've also seen other RIT shirts on here that I think are really nice.

It just seems that when people on this thread are disappointed with their results, they have most often used RIT dyes. I used to work in a craft store and ALWAYS tried to talk people out of buying RIT dyes to tie dye. That doesn't mean it can't be done and done well, but the finished product just doesn't look the same. I think the less intense colors are great for people who don't really like to wear bright colors (like macho guys who don't really want to wear a Mickey Head shirt )

You are now a great resource to this list, because you can help all of those who only have access to RIT dyes.

I also don't think anyone ever said "Dharma only". But Dharma dyes consistently provide great end results. What most people don't realize is, there are only a few commercial producers of fabric dyes, including the fiber reactive dyes. Jacquard produces the Procion MX dyes. Dharma and other retailers buy these dyes in bulk quantities and mix their own color formulas. So, if you are talking about a Jacquard kit, versus a Tulip kit, versus Dharma dye, you are really talking about the same dye. Dharma has gone to great trouble to mix and exhaustively test over 100 colors that consistently produce great results. That is why they have such vocal and loyal fans!

For anyone determined to use RIT dyes, I highly recommend going to www.ritdye.com and reading BOTH the "Dye Techniques" and the "Tie Dyeing" Instructions and following them.

So, just a few points:

-Using hot water to mix the dye and keeping it hot while dyeing is important.
-Using salt in the dye bath is important.
-Using soda ash with RIT dye is useless and a waste of money.
-The RIT dye will fade. It will slowly continue to fade in the wash throughout the life of the garment, so don't wash it with anything that could get ruined by the dye running, even after many washes. The tip someone posted about throwing in a few Shout Dye Catchers is a good one.
-RIT dye is bases on the "right" amount of dye to use per pound of fabric. Not as easy as "2 tsp per cup of water" for the fiber reactive dye. If you get great results with a certain recipe of RIT dyes, please keep track of them and post for all of us!!! (I know, I said I never want to do shirts with RIT dyes, but, you never know!!! I am always interested in learning new techniques!!

You all have me inspired again, to try and get shirts done before my WDW trip in 2 weeks!! Here's hoping I have time to do them!

GoofyWalker

 

[GoofyWalker]

Love the combination of these 2 colors.

PD32,
What colors did you use here?!??! LOVE the dark color!

GoofyWalker