Tie Dyeing 101

Tie Dying is an easy craft very suitable as a beginners craft, such as the beginners crafts ideas you can get for silk painting on the page Silk Painting Is Fun. Most of us associate tie dyed clothing and décor with the late 60s and early 70s. But did you know that there are samples of tie dyed fabric that date back as early as 800 A.D.? The techniques used to produce these ancient garments produced results somewhat different from what most of us see today, but they are certainly recognizable as tie dye.

Tie dyeing is simple enough that a child can do it with a little assistance.

Here's a step-by-step tutorial.

1. Choose a fabric that will hold dye well. 100% cotton is one of the best choices, and it's very easy to work with. But other natural fabrics such as silk and rayon can also be successfully tie dyed. For best results, wash and dry the garment before you dye it.

2. Get your materials together. You can buy pre-packaged tie dye kits if you don't want to purchase everything separately. If you buy your materials individually, you'll need dye, rubber bands, rubber gloves, squeeze bottles, urea and soda ash. You should be able to find all of these items in your favorite craft supply store.

3. Mix soda ash with warm water according to the directions on the label. Soak the garment for about 10 minutes. Then put on some rubber gloves and wring it out thoroughly, or put it in the washer on spin cycle to get all excess water out.

4. Lay the garment flat on a table or other flat surface. Place a dowel, a wooden clothespin, or even your finger in the center, and start turning it clockwise. Continue until the entire garment is twisted into a circle, pushing the fabric down off of the dowel as you go so that it remains as flat as possible. Remove the dowel carefully to avoid pulling the fabric up.

5. Slip rubber bands onto the twisted garment, taking care to retain its shape. You'll need to use several of them and go in all different directions. Keep the garment as flat as possible throughout the process.

6. Mix one or more colors of dye in squirt bottles per the instructions on the container.

7. Protect your work area by covering it with plastic and a layer of paper towels. Place the garment on top of the paper towels, and start squirting the dye on. For a rainbow-colored garment, use yellow, fuchsia and turquoise. Squirt each color thoroughly on a third of the garment, overlapping them a bit. Don't leave any white areas, because there will be plenty of those in the wrinkles of the garment.

8. Turn the garment over onto a pile of clean paper towels, and repeat the process on the back, putting each color behind where the same color was on the front if you're using more than one.

9. Place the garment into a ziplock bag, seal, and leave in a warm place for 24 to 36 hours.

10. Remove the garment from the bag, and rinse in cold water until the water runs clear. Wash it by itself on normal cycle in the washing machine, and it's ready to wear!

This technique may be used to create a variety of projects. The most common is the t-shirt, but you can also use it on pants, accessories, and even curtains. And once you get the hang of this technique, you can do the twisting and tying in different ways to produce different effects. Have fun!