DIY Tie Dye Project

First step-  to warm up the background color. make a big bucket of tea, the more bags you use, the darker your garment becomes. Its important to take the bags out though before you put the clothes in or you could end up with spots from where the bag touched the garment directly. Stir for about 20 min., rinse, and hang dry.

Then- Take rubber bands and twist fabric into little clumps (anywhere you want the dye pattern to go) and secure by tying like a ponytail as many times as you can get the band around it. This makes a circular tie dye pattern. I hang the caftans upside down to dip them in the dye and let it bleed into the hem. About four ties in the front of the body, four in the back, and two on the arms.

Using Rit liquid dye (easier than powder form) mix up a big bucket of navy, wine, and chocolate dye in boiling water. re-wet the caftans (good for bleeding effect) and dip them in the dye and leave them there for about 30 minutes.  note that after washing you lose a LOT of color so for darker items leave in about 3 hours, stirring contantly at first, then occasionally. After dying, rinsing is hardest part. Rinse and then rinse more. After rinsing take off rubber bands and then hand wash them twice, which softens the tie dye effect. Hang dry and don’t worry about it being too perfect- perfection is boring!!!

viola!

idea and pics taken from penelopetboutique.com

~abby