I have always been a big fan of tie dyed T shirts. I absolutely admire the wonderful artists who can make these. The photos above show three of my favorites that I have acquired over the years. I wish I could say that I made them myself, but now that I have tried to make some I can really appreciate how difficult it is to get patterns and colors like these.
Whenever I dye cotton yarn or crochet thread, I always put dye on a blank T shirt or two just for fun. The results have been spectacularly boring! The colors run together in unpredictable and unflattering ways, and the patterns usually result in simple blotches. Here are the latest two attempts at T shirts. One failure...
...from a distance it looks like I rolled in the chicken coop! Close up it has interesting speckles (click the picture to enlarge). I made this one by scattering dry dye powder on the wet shirt, then rinsing it off. If you do this yourself, please be aware that the dye powder is extremely dangerous stuff to inhale and take appropriate cautions!
And one modest success, made by pleating and banding the fabric. The white circles were made by tying the fabric around small pebbles.
If you would like to try your hand at tie dye shirts there are inexpensive kits available at any craft store. Make sure that the shirt you purchase is 100% cotton or the colors will be very pale! With some simple precautions this makes a good summer camp project for kids.
CLICK HERE TO SHOP
LIKE ME ON FACEBOOK!
