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One of the most fun
things to do for yourself and with the kids is TYE DYE. Messy yes
but lots of fun. You can dye clothes, hats, gloves, pillow cases,
drapes, etc. It is fabric you can dye it. Natural fiber are
best. Synthetic dyes just don't dye. USE RUBBER GLOVES, USE LOTS
OF DROP CLOTHS, LOTS OF NEWSPAPER. Outside would be good.
MATERIALS
1.
Garment or
fabric to dye. SHOULD BE NATURAL FIBERS. Synthetics just do not
dye well at all and sometimes not at all.
2.
Dyes, I
only use Procion dyes. They are the easiest to work with and are very
light fast and water resistant to transferring
3.
Soda Ash to
put into the soak bath
4.
Large
bucket for your soda ash and garments to soak.
5.
Rubber
bands, lots and lots
6.
A plastic
work surface for folding your garment. I use a plastic drop cloth over
my entire table, but you can get by with a 30 gal plastic bag for
smaller items.
7.
A dowel rod
comes in handy you only need a stick of 8 to 12 inches (cut off an old
broom)
8.
LOTS OF
PLASTIC bags, I use my grocery bags.
9.
Plastic
bottles for mixing up the dyes.
10.
Plastic
squirt bottles for applying your dyes, (I ask my hair dresser to save me
her throw discards from perms)
11.
A stack of
old newspapers to place your garment when dying. Replace with another
piece between dye application
INSTRUCTIONS
1)
SOAK SHIRTS
IN SODA ASH WATER ½ to 1 cup per 5 gallons water.
FOR AT
LEAST 15-30 minutes. Be sure all of shirt has gotten wet and soaked.
2)
Wring out
shirt. Remove as much water as you can. Water in the garment keeps out
the dye.
3)
LAYOUT
shirt on CLEAN plastic to fold the shirt,. Fold in tight small pleats.
RUBBER band to hold in shape. Experiment with different folds.
a.
Fold shirt
from top to bottom and then fold and scrunch
b.
Fold shirt
diagonally and then fold and scrunch
c.
Fold shirt
from top to bottom and place end of dowel on the folded edge of the shirt
and twist the dowel to twist the shirt, fold with your other hand as the
shirt turns, remove dowel and add rubber bands.
4)
USE LOTS OF
RUBBER BANDS, you want the design tight and snug so it doesn’t fall
apart later as you handle it
5)
Put garment
in a clean plastic bag to wait until you have folded all the garments you
intend to do.
6)
Put a thick
piece of news paper on your table to lay the shirt when apply squirt dye
7)
Put on
rubber glove or you will be sorry later.
8)
I mix up a
6 or 8 ounce bottle of dye in the colors I am going to work, then I
transfer some to a squirt bottle
9)
Mix your
dyes according to the instructions on your dyes. More dye if you want
dark bright colors.
10) Put a shirt on the news paper (to absorb excess dye)
and squirt your dyes onto the folded shirt. It is a good idea to keep a
pattern for dyes., not just a squirt here and there but a strip. When
you turn over the shirt, use the same pattern. Colors that are next to
each other WILL MIX see color chart below.
11) Each time you turn your shirt, put down a new piece
of news paper. Don’t place your shirt in the dye on the table.
12) be generous with the dye so you apply
enough it can soak through all the folds. Any part that does not get dye
will be white.
13)AFTER YOU applied dyes,
put garment into a plastic bag,
ONE
GARMENT PER BAG.
This is the
hard part…….wait 8 to 24 hours.
another option is to mix up a bucket of black dye and soak the folded,
dyed shirts in the bucket. It still scares me when I drop them n
but only the white on the shirt will take the black dye and the colors
will stay bright. IT'S MAGIC and it makes a nice change.
14)Rinse out, in cold running water, as much dye as you
can.
What I do…
Start the
washing machine, NO SOAP, fill with water, and turn it off. Rinse
one garment at a time in the sink, then put into washing machine, turn
on, swish swish and turn it off. Rinse next garment, put in washing
machine, swish swish, turn off and continue until all garments are in
the washer. Turn on the washer and finish the wash and rinse cycle.
That should be enough, but if in doubt run through the rinse cycle
again.
I have
never had a problem with the dyes fading or leaking onto other
clothing. I usually throw my tye dyes in with whatever I’m washing.
But it would not hurt to be careful for the first washing or two.
Procion
Dyes are available in small bottles about $5.00 and also in larger tubs
from $18. To $30 depending on the color. If you can’t find them, let me
know as I keep a fairly good stock of them for myself.
I am working on some fold patterns and
will try to get them attached to this page in a short while
REMEMBER THE COLOR WHEEL
PRIMARIES
ARE circles on the wheel
RED, YEL, BLUE
SECONDARIES ARE squares on the wheel
PURPLE, ORANGE, GREEN
TERTIARIES ARE illustrated by triangles in
above wheel,
red/org, yellow/org., yellow/grn, blue/grn,
blue/purp and red/purp
RED
+YELLOW = ORANGE
YELLOW+BLUE – GREEN
BLUE+RED
= PURPLE
IF YOU MIX
OPOSITES ON THE COLOR WHEEL YOU WILL GET MUD, BROWN OR BLACK.
Like red
and purple, blue and orange, green and red.
/.,ll;k
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