Top o' the Mornin' to Ya!
It’s St. Patrick’s Day and I promised you a St. Patrick’s day themed Covid Craft.
But first...
Did anyone try the acrylic paint pouring from our previous post? After watching the video, I see that my paints were a little too thick. I’ll try another pouring tutorial in the future.
There were several failed attempts at making the video which resulted in several unintended paintings. For one of those paintings, I used St. Patrick’s Day colors and it turned out quite well!
This week’s St. Patty’s Day project is not a painting. It’s a tie-dyed shirt!
Somehow I’ve managed to make it 48 years on this planet and have never tie dyed a thing. It’s not a project I sought out, but a cool video appeared on, you guessed it, TikTok, and I just had to try it.
A normal person would have started with something more basic, but I jumped straight to a rainbow.
I watched a lot of how-to videos and read several articles to learn everything I needed to know. Then, I bought a pack of XL all-cotton tee shirts from Target, and a dye kit plus an extra bottle of green dye from Michael’s. Then I made a video! Detailed steps are below.
Steps
1. Wash & dry your new shirts before starting.
100% cotton shirts are best for beginners.
2. Mark & Tie shirt
- Cut a template of half a rainbow to use as a guide
- Outline template with washable marker
- Scrunch the shirt following the lines tying both ends tightly with string. You can use string or rubber bands. The difference is that dye bleeds through the string, but not through the rubber bands. In theory, at least. For the rainbow, I used string but there’s still some white.
- Draw another five evenly spaced lines to mark the different rainbow colors and tie them tightly.
- Scrunch the ends of the shirt that will be the green at the top and bottom, and secure using string or rubber bands (I used about 5 rubber bands per end, and used a blue bands near the neck so I’d know where to start the red for my rainbow).
3. Soak Shirt
Soak shirt in a mix of sodium carbonate, or soda ash, and warm water. This solution that helps the dyes adhere to the material better and produces more vibrant colors. I soaked my shirt for about a half an hour.
4. Prep workstation
- While the shirts are soaking, it’s a good time to set up a workstation and prepare dye.
- A trash bag protected the table
- I also put down a painter’s drop cloth on the ground just in case anything spilled. I know dye can soak right through, but it gave me a little peace of mind.
- Use a rack on top of some kind of container to catch the dye
- Have a towel nearby that you don’t mind if it gets a little colorful
5. Mix Dyes
- The kit I used came with powder dyes that are mixed with warm water.
- My kit didn’t come with orange, so I mixed some red and yellow together in a squeezable container I got from the dollar store.
- The extra green was liquid which also gets mixed with warm-hot water and I had an extra squeezable container.
6. Start Dyeing!
- My blue rubber bands told me where to start with the first color of the rainbow: Red. Can’t have my rainbow being upside down!
- This is the fun part: Just squirt the dye trying to work it into the folds. The dye bleeds, especially onto the yellow, but just do the best you can.
7. Wrap in plastic & leave overnight
- Once the shirt is covered in dye, wrap it in plastic wrap and place into a Ziplock bag so the dye can continue to do its thing
- Let that sit for at least 8 hours. Mine sat overnight, so probably about 18 hours.
8. Rinse, untie, rinse
In an area that won’t stain, such as outside or in a stainless steel or utility sink, rinse your shirt in cool water until the water runs clear.
9. Wash in cold water
- Wash your new creation in cold water (mostly) by itself. Since washing only one item can cause it to stick to the sides of the washer, place something else in there with it that you wouldn’t mind getting dye on. Or throw in a tennis ball!
- I washed mine with an old towel and, even though it is pale yellow, it didn’t have a speck of dye on it after washing it with my new shirt.
- Continue washing your new shirt this way for the first few cleanings.
10. Air dry
When I finished rinsing the dye from my unwrapped shirt, I was thrilled at the bright colors! There was a bit more white than I wanted, but I still loved my new creation. However, when I pulled it out of the washing machine, it was much lighter. I still love it, but wish it had stayed as vibrant as it looked at first. One tip I read said to soak the shirt in a vinegar bath after rinsing but before washing, so I tried that with my second one. It was a 1:1 vinegar-water mix and soaked for 30 minutes. I also used a lot more green this time:
So what do you think?
Wow; side by side my second attempt looks worse than the first somehow. Looks like I got a little careless with the purple.
Regardless, I hope I’ve inspired you to try this!
The plan for my next Covid Craft is something with expoxy resin. I just got some new molds that I’m itching to try!
Coo.l I love tie dyed shirts never attempted to make my own.Great job!
You have too much energy! I’m on the struggle bus this week with the time change.
wow, I really like how yours turned out. I like the green not being so bold.
I also liked the painting you did with the Ireland colors.
Can’t wait to see your next project.
Keep it up
The tie dye shirts did turn out great. I don’t think I have ever tried dying anything because I am a pretty messy person. But I love seeing how good yours turned out. Your crafts/hobbies continuously to be very interesting and enjoyable. Thanks.