Let’s tie-dye

A big fashion trend that has com back this summer is the tie-dye shirts! I gave it a go and will show you my process and what came out of it.

I grabbed a couple of white t-shirts and white joggers I ordered for this specifically. The first thing I did was grab my first shirt, which is 95% cotton and 5% elastane. I lied it down flat and turn it within my fingers as that is the pattern I wanted to go for. As I didn’t have any plastic bands, I used old hair ties to wrap around them and make sure they are tight enough to keep some bits white.

Then I grabbed the Batik textile dye, which is from amazon. I got blue, fresh green and neon light yellow. I actually really liked the green although I am usually not a big green person and blue and yellow are my favourite colours. I used the Kreul Batik textile dye.

I mixed hot water with some of the colour salt in a basin. The more salt you mix into the water, the stronger the colour will come out. It says you can leave the material in it for an hour. I left it in for roughly 15 minutes and then took it out to rinse it under water from the sink. Then I hang it up to let it dry. I made the mistake (aka my sister) to put the shirt straight into the washing machine after dying it, which resulted in our first batch to barely have any colour left in them.

Next I tried to dye my joggers with the neon yellow colour, however it didn’t fully go as well as the t-shirts. The material was very synthetic and is made out of 100% polyester. The colour didn’t stick at all. When I rinsed it under the sink, the colour went out completely and I decided to put it in the wash on a short run to then try again and leave the colour in for an hour.

To say the least, that didn’t do anything and when I say anything I mean absolutely nothing at all. The polyester wouldn’t take any of the colour. What I have learnt from this is that the more cotton is in the material, the better the tie-dye works. I also realised that the t-shirt that has been once washed before, compared to the brand new one, caught a lot more of the colour as well. So I’d recommend to use textile that is made out of cotton and pre-wash it once before trying to tie-dye it.

and btw if you don’t know yet, Call me Chrissi!