How to: Tie Dye!

Hiya guys! So last weekend I did some tie-dying for the second time and it went really well so I thought I would show you how to do it in a simple step-by-step guide. Now tie-dying is by no means a quickly or particularly easy thing to do, but if you have the patience then you can make some really lovely things.

So to tie dye, you will need:

Hand Fabric Dye (I'm using Dylon in Flamingo Pink)

Some elastic bands or some string

250g of table salt

A jug, but one that doesn't matter if it gets tinted the dye colour!

Something to stir the dye with- I'm using a stick, as last time I used a wooden spoon and it's still blue 6 months on!

Some weighing scales

A large bucket or washing up bowl

And of course, some fabric to dye!

Ok, so this tie-dying tutorial is going to be done according to the Dylon dye instructions, so if you are going to use some different dye make sure you follow the right instructions.

1. So to begin with, you need to take your fabric and using your elastic bands you need to tie it up, and you can do whatever patterns you like- how you tie it up all depends on what patterns you will get in the end.  Here are the kind of ways I tied up my t-shirts:

2. Next, fill a sink with warm water and just leave your fabric in the sink to soak.

3. Now to mix the dye: tip the powder dye into a jug and add 500g of warm water. Stir it until dissolved (I used a plastic spoon). 

4. Now fill your bucket with 6 litres of warm water, add the dissolved dye and 250g of salt. Then stir it all up until it's dissolved and then add your fabric (make sure it's still damp from being soaked) and stir it constantly for 15 minutes (very tiring, but this makes sure the fabric gets fully soaked and absorbs all the dye). 

5. So after you have stirred it for 15 minutes you should have started to see that the fabric has absorbed some of the colour, so now you have to stir it regularly for 45 minutes (I stirred it every 8 minutes).

6. Now you need to get your rubber gloves on and take your bucket to a sink where it won't matter too much if you splash the dye around a bit!

7. Now, rinse the fabric off in cold water until the water runs clear and no more dye is coming out of it. Then, undo all your elastic bands and leave your fabric to soak in warm water for about half an hour to an hour. Remove them from the water and let them dry naturally, and then they are ready to wear!

Here are the results:

I'm so so happy with what I got in the end, I think it turned out really really well! I have actually sold two of my t-shirts already, and have one more to sell:

If you are interested just send me a tweet, and I'll tell you all the details. Also I'm going to be making a lot more t-shirts soon so I will let you know how I get on!

Olivia Ellen XXX
@oliviaellen97