Tie Dye Days

Every summer I get the itch to do some tie dye and last week was the time. This time I decided to try some shibori in addition to other techniques.  For a great primer on tie dye I recommend Amanda's posts at Jedi Craft Girl.

I did all this with a single "Tulip" tie dye kit with a dozen colors.  It did 5 boys large shirts, 2 adult larges, 5 2T shirts, 5 4T shirts, and a dozen onesies in various sizes.

The real technique in tie dye in in learning different folds. I tried a bunch of shibori this time, which involves rolling the shirts around PVC pipe, wrapping with string, and scrunching.

That shirt is part of the set above, after a wash and dry.  Pretty cute :)

As far as the shibori, I really ended up liking the ones done with a single color dye.  The two on the left were done with just blue. After a wash a dry there's a lot more contrast from light to dark within thm.

I definitely like the ones done with a single colors dye best.

Here's a spiral design in progress.  I put a cooling rack over a pot to let the dye drip through.

Here's the finished onesie, along with some others.

Of course Wilson was on hand throughout the process to supervise.

He took time off to stalk some grass hoppers, too.

After marinating over night the shirts were ready to be unwrapped and hung to dry.

As a bonus, the shibori yielded pretty dyed cotton string. I'm think these will be perfect for wrapping gifts.

Baby gifts for the next year, all set!  If you are interested in seeing more of the individual shirts, here  are some below.  Thanks for visiting!