Shibori another good example.. is a traditional Japanese textile art dating back to the 8th century. Shibori is the collective term in Japanese for tie-dye, stitch-dye, fold-dye, pole wrap-dye, etc. It is translated into English as shaped-resist dyeing, because no comparable embracing term exists in English.

The hand dye artist first creates a design and then the cloth is stitched, bound, resisted, wrapped or gathered by hand.

 Any number of  methods are used on one
piece and may  involve as many as a dozen different techniques.

The cloth is then dyed in natural dyes such as indigo, bark, roots, leaves, insects  or resins.

For each color, dozens of steps have to be altered, re-stitched, gathered and so forth... and the  processes again repeated



What then might be the best method(s) to tie-dye your t-shirts?



Traditionally, tie-dye is a pattern of color (s) made by preventing the dye from reaching some areas of the material while vat dyeing and allowing others.

Folding, tying, stitching, bundling, crumpling or otherwise preparing the t-shirt fabric inhibits the nature flow of the dye.

Most modern folding, bunching, scrunching, and  twisting is done starting with a t-shirt laid flat on a plastic sheet or tarp covered table in a clear spaced work area.

The pattern of the folds or brunched.. and  crunched areas,  where the color (s) is squirted dictates the resulting design.

Surprise is part of what makes a tye-dyed style t-shirt an exciting and interesting art form.

You  will need rubber bands or string,  a large needle (for "Stitch Work" technique) rubber gloves,  a large bucket or pot, and towels or rags to help keep your work area clean.

You will use about 4 oz of dye liquid per average tye dye t-shirt..  but before you rush out to buy supplies and the accessories you may need, or the dye to get started..  there is some good  information  here about what dye's are best to use and what information for safety you need to understand  before  starting any  tie dye t-shirt project.

Overview: How to Tye Dye T-Shirts
And Produce Colorful Fabrics

* Make certain that the item you will use is at least 60 percent cotton.

 Before you plan to dye your t-shirt item, you should wash it to remove any sizing from the manufacturer or anything else that may through handling have gotten onto it.

* Pre-wash your selected fabric. Some dyes may require you to presoak your  fabric /clothing in a wash of sodium carbonate, also known as soda ash dye fixer. Do not confuse this with sodium bicarbonate, which is baking soda!



* Note: With some dyes you will have to soak them in soda ash and with others, like RIT,  you only need to dip the fabric in hot water. 

 Although a new artist can use common Rit dye to tie dye t-shirts, we recommend the use of higher quality fiber reactive dyes to get started.



* You can vary simple tie dye patterns to produce  amazing tye dye results on your T-shirts!



Tye dye patterns - Tying:  

 Lay your tie dye selected fabric out neatly on a flat surface. Fold the  item lengthwise, like a fan. The more you fold, the more the tie dye patterns will repeat.

Fold the tie dye item again height-wise. You can fold it in rectangles, or in triangles, where-ever you desire the tie dye patterns to appear.

You can also tie a rubber band or piece of thick string around bunched or scrunched portions of the selected fabric very tightly.  More on rubber band and string tie dye patterns upcoming.

Tye Dye Patterns - Squeezing:

Lightly moisten your t-shirt until it is slightly wet. Then lay the t-shirt out flat on a work surface.

Using your finger tips, squeeze and twist portions of the t-shirts into peaks. You can make a few large peaks, or  just small ones,  or a combination of both.

For this technique you may spoon, drip, or squeeze the dye onto the fabric. You may use a single color for all of the peaks and a different colors for all of the valleys..

or  use different colors for the peaks and valleys.

You need not cover all the fabric in dye -- leaving some un-dyed areas on the t-shirt will help to enhance your tye dye patterns.

Let the dye soak or cure according to the dye instructions.

Lift the t-shirt off the table to reveal the tye dye patterns using the squeezing tie dye techniques!  Following the dye instructions, rinse and then allow to dry.

For this type of project you will need a large needle and twine or very thick thread tripled or quadrupled over itself.

The thicker the string, the more visible your design will be.

For more precise tye dye patterns, sketch your design out using a pencil or marker.

Remember to tie a very thick knot at the end of the thread so as to prevent it from slipping through the t-shirt material when you are bunching.

Using a single strand, sew large stitches, at least a quarter inch, along the entire length of your design.

One stitch at a time, pull the fabric back towards the knot until it is bunched up. Pull the fabric as tight as possible.

 Secure the thread with another thick knot. If a stitch is too loose.. or falls out, re-thread it through the already-bunched fabric.

Always dye the fabric according to the dye instructions.

 After allowing the fabric to drip dry ten  to twenty minutes before you untie it. Cut the stitches out to reveal your tye dye patterns using the stitching tie dye techniques.

 Then.. simply rinse it out according to the dye instructions.

Natural dyes are less permanent, more difficult to apply, not to mention the fact that they wash out more easily, and often involve the use of highly toxic mordants.

Most natural dyes are not particularly toxic in themselves, but they will not cling or absorb into  fabric unless a mordant is used.

Typically, a mordant is a heavy metal.

Heavy metals are toxic, and severely poisonous for the environment as well. 

Some natural dyes,   derived directly from logwood as an example, are of themselves significantly deadly.

Alum is a relatively safe mordant that can sometimes be used.

It is any of several chemical compounds based on aluminum, which is much safer than chromium and other like heavy metals.

A somewhat less safe mordant is iron. Iron is toxic in overdose and is one of the leading cause of poisoning deaths in children that ingest it.

Iron is useful  nutritionally in small quantities, and it will not necessarily harm the environment when disposed of.

Iron is not only a mordant for other dyes, but it can also be used as a dye of itself.

Iron is useful as a dye by applying bits of iron metal to fabric and allowing them to rust.

Some natural dyes work better on wool than on cotton.

Synthetic fibers usually cannot be dyed with natural dyes.

With Natural Dyes the color possibilities are far more limited.

Although the color of any natural dye may be easily copied by mixing synthetic dyes, many  color options simply are not easily obtained with natural dyes alone.

There are some natural dyes that will work on cotton, if mordant blended with tannins.

Among the better natural dyes for cotton are annato, cutch, logwood, madder, and indigo.. all of these except for indigo require mordants, while indigo requires a special type of dye vat.

They are complex to use, requiring the establishment of an anaerobic (oxygen-free) fermentation.

These substances do not stay permanently associated with the dye in the fiber; they serve only to adjust pH, which is a very important consideration in dyeing.

Some acids, however, do serve as mordants, most notably is tannic acid.

Earth oxides from different parts of the world come in a surprisingly wide range of different colors.

Mud dyeing is more satisfactory as a fun idea than it is as an actual source of intense color.

The traditional art of African mud cloth dyeing will be darker browns,  rather than reddish.

Good natural sources of tannins include tea, 'Tara' powder, oak galls, persimmons, pomegranate fruit rinds, Myrobalan powder; you can also purchase pure tannic acid from some natural dyes suppliers.

 It is probably best to treat fabric with the tannins first (such as by "tea dyeing" quite heavily), and then with the mud, to encourage the iron tannate to form in the fiber, rather than in the water.

At the end of the day..

simply understand how natural dyes work..

 and what safety procedures you'll need to follow.
 

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