I think boredom has got to most of us but one thing that keeps my mind occupied for a few hours is DIY activities. From doing some paint work to dying clothes, being creative is good for the mind. With tie-dye being a trend on the rise I hopped on the wagon and customised myself a t-shirt, shorts and some socks to test the waters and was pretty happy with the results.
What do you need to tie-dye?
Firstly you will need your white clothing, preferably made from natural fibres such as cotton rather than synthetic ones such as polyester. A plastic sheet is helpful to prevent the dye leaking through the fabric onto your table and some plastic gloves to prevent colouring your skin. You will also need dye powder and water to mix it with, i'd recommend doing this in bottles like the ones in the first photo for precision, they can be bought from Amazon and craft stores. Elastic bands are needed to do the tying part and you need a plastic bag to wrap the fabric in while the colour is processing. Finally some salt to use when washing the dye out of the fabric to help it hold.
How do you do it?
You'll need to start with damp fabric, so after placing your sheet down and mixing your dyes following the instructions they come with, soak the fabric and ring it out. This means the dye absorbs better and more evenly and its a lot easier to scrunch and tie. The next thing to do is to tie your fabric, the two methods I used were the spiral and the scrunch, but there is loads more that can be found online. Once tied securely, use the precision tip of the bottle to apply the dye where you want it, use 2-4 colours for a good effect. Be careful not to mix colours that are opposite next to each other, of they bleed over it will create brown. So for example red and green, blue and orange, yellow and purple. Get the dye right into the creases and on the underneath if you don't wan't any fabric left white. Once the dye is on, wrap it up in the plastic bag and leave it to set. I left mine for 5 hours as I didn't want the colours to be too intense, but you can leave it for up to 8 hours for maximum colour. When the time is up, rinse your fabric using cold water and put it on a rinse cycle in the washing machine with a scoop of salt. Wash it alone for the first few washes to prevent the dye running onto any of your other clothes.
For the t-shirt I went for the classic spiral technique, where you pinch the fabric at the point you'd like to be the centre and turn your hand allowing the fabric to create a spiral. Using 4 elastic bands to create 8 sections, a different colour can be applied to each one. I used 4 colours and repeated them. When turning the fabric over to dye the other side, make sure to line the colours up with what is on the front.
For the shorts and socks I went for a scrunching method, where you select random pieces of the fabric using your fingers and scrunch them up, it is completely freestyle with no order to it. Once the fabric is all scrunched up the elastic bands are used to keep it in place rather than mark where the dye goes. I simply applied the dye freely by waving the bottle over the fabric, leaving white patches and allowing the two colours to cross.
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