How to Tie Dye
If you want to add a bit of splash to your wardrobe or just need a great activity to share with your kids, tie dyeing is a terrific way to spend your afternoon and it produces some beautiful, wearable art! Though you may know tie dying best through its popularity from the seventies, tie dying actually goes back to at least the eighth century. While you don't need to use the same primitive materials that those first dyers were using, the process has largely remained unchanged.

The general process for tie dying is to tightly wrap the item to be dyed in such a way that the dye does not penetrate the wrapped area. While the rest of the fabric takes on the color of the dye, the area that has been wrapped should stay the base color of the fabric. The soft, fuzzy line of color where the dye bleeds into the wrapped area is part of the decorative effect.

To get started tie dying, you will need a fabric item that you would like to dye, some form of fabric dye, a container of some sort, and some rubber bands. The most simple pattern you can get is concentric circles. Pinch the fabric where you want the center of the circle to be, and then bind it off with a tight wrap of rubber bands. You will have a white circle where the rubber bands cover the cloth, and the tighter you can make the bands, the less the dye will seep in, producing cleaner circles. Though this is the most basic form of tie dying, you can get get many different effects from this versatile art. For example, experimenting with pleats will give you stripes! For inspiration, you may want to take a look at traditional patterns of this type of dying, like batik and shibori.

After the fabric has been prepared, you will need to dunk it into the dye bath. The longer you leave the fabric in, the darker the end result is likely to be, so plan accordingly. Remember to read the instructions on the dye bottles and to check the material you are dying to make sure you have a rough idea of what to expect.

While this is the most basic formula for tie dying, there are a few things to keep in mind. While many different types of dye can be used, a good fiber reactive dye will bond the dye to the fabric and make sure that the colors don't bleed onto other clothing in the wash. Similarly, if your creation is dipped into a solution of soda ash prior to dying makes the dye more permanent, keeping the colors bright and preventing quick fading.

Tie dying is a wonderful way to make dull white cotton t-shirts into bright splashes of color and add some lively fun to your home!