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How do you make the dye for tie dye shirts?

Does anyone know of a cost effective way to make tie dye shirts without using fabric dye?

  • Our Scout troop has to make 18 of them and the price at the local craft store was not in the budget.

  • Answer:

    get rit dye in the laundry section, that should be enough dye to do all 18 shirts, just get a few buckets, mix up the various colors and let the kids go, from one bucket to another, starting with the lighter colors. you dont use one kit for just one shirt anyway, if you got the dyelon kit you could do 4 to 6 shirts with it. you can use watered down acrylic craft paints, you can use unsweetened koolaid packs about one pack per quart of water, use a vinegar rinse at the end,

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you could start with colored shirts and tie them then use bleach

♥mtnsky♥

Off the top of my head.....you could crush berries or use food dye or pound flowers onto the fabric

Samantha A

I think it might work with some of the juices> grape beet carrot good luck

butterfly

Food colouring or koolaid+small amount of water might work but I have never tried it. Have to work with small quantities because the more water you the less the colour will stick.

brystonmama

The answer above is a good one. To set the colors I would rinse them to prepare for dye in a fabric soap called synthrapol. It is pricey, but you should be able to get enough for two washes per shirt for a lot less than the price of dye (it takes very little synthrapol, and you can compine the water with more than one shirt) You can get it online, or in most quilt shops. After dying with the veggies and fruits, (blueberries is a really good one) and rinsing a second time with synthrapol to get rid of bleeding dye and set it, let the shirts dry, or tumble dry them on a very high heat in a dryer, and then iron them on a high setting. Oh, and to dye using natural items - boil in a large metal pot on the stove. boil a lot of water, leaving enough room to submerge the shirt, with whatever item you are using to create the color. I would experiment with food dyes as well. good luck

indigo

Tea is always a colour maker, make the tea real strong, and let it stand for a while before using. And if you want to have colour spots, you might colour the wheels with permanent markers. But realize that these natural dyes take more effort, and for the best results you need chemicals to fix the colours to the textiles. You might be better of if you go to your local drug-store, and just buy enough textile dye for re-dyeing clothes. Just one packaging will be enough, for more than just 18 shirts. If you use one tub with water with just a little dye, and an other with a lot of dye, you can even make several shades for untying and over-tying experiments. Craft shops are not the cheapest way to buy dyes.

Willeke

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