Groovy Gains
Step by Step Instructions
for some Awesome Tie Dye!
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Why is Tie Dye so amazing and cool? The tie dye fashion never seems to fade or wear out. I remember wearing tie dye in middle school and now my middle schooler loves it too. It looks cool and it is so much fun to make. If you’re like me, you’re tired of your kids saying they’re bored. I feel like we’ve all been home together forever with no end in sight. We are constantly looking for things to do! When my daughter suggested tie dye, I grunted and drug my feet. I had no idea what I was doing and it sounded like another mess I had to clean up.
Looking back on how I felt, I’m so glad that I didn’t let that stop me. We had so much fun and they turned out really cute! Follow the directions below and learn from our mistakes. You’ll be glad you did.
- Start by pre-washing your shirt or clothes that you want to dye. We didn’t do this at first and the color certainly didn’t stick as well as we had hoped. After you wash, make sure that you leave the clothing damp! The dampness helps absorb the color. I thought the opposite at first. We watched many tutorials before we realized that this actually really helped!
2. Cover your work area in an old shower curtain or lots of plastic. You’ll be really glad that you didn’t skip this step. This stuff can get really messy. And don’t forget gloves! We also used Glad Press N Seal to cover the kids’ clothes in case of splashes and spills. It worked great because you can just peel it off and throw it away at the end.
3. Decide which design you want and fold your garment up. You can start in the center with a fork and twirl (my favorite and the design shown above), start from a corner and bunch your way up to the opposite corner, take random spots and wrap rubber bands, or start at the neck and bunch a “V” pattern the whole way down. There’s so many different ways and patterns. Don’t forget to add rubber bands at even patterns.
4. Fill your squirt bottle with hot water (not boiling) and add 2 tablespoons of
Shake carefully. We reused the same bottle over and over but you can buy several and fill them all with different colors. We happened to have a bottle laying around that we weren’t using. But you can buy them if you need to. Here is a nice set on Amazon.
5. Lay your pieces on a baking sheet, use gloves and begin carefully squirting your colors onto your fabric. Make sure that you make nice even sections. This will look a lot nicer. Flip over and do t he same to the other side. After you’re done, let sit for 30 mins.
6. Now here’s the secret part!! I swear it makes such a difference, you’ll be amazed. Fill up your clean squirt bottle with just a little bit of hot water again. Add about 1/2 tablespoon of salt. Swirl around until dissolved. Now fill up the rest of the bottle with white vinegar. Shake carefully. Give your garments a nice soak on both sides with this mixture.
7. Wrap all dyed garments with plastic wrap and microwave for 2 minutes. This really works! We tried it without this step and there were lots of tears and sadness. You can buy the fixation solution from Rit but this works just as good.
8. After your garments have cooled, wash them ONE AT A TIME with an old towel in COLD water. Hang dry. That’s it! Super cute tie dye shirts!
I hope this tutorial helps you and your kiddos have a great tie dye experience! Let me know how it goes and feel free to share your own tips!