Details
How to Tie Die
First Stage: Folding and binding your fabric
Fold and bind your fabric with elastics in a variety of ways. For better resolution of the forms, make the fabric slightly damp prior to forming.
Second Stage: Combine your fabic with soda ash liquid
Put on the mask and gloves provided in the kit. Combine 1 cup / 8 oz / 236 mililiters of soda ash for each 1 gallon / 128 oz / 3.78 liters of warm water, which is enough for a dozen t-shirts. Place the fabric in the liquid and let stand for 15 minutes. Wring fabric to remove excess liquid, repeat until slightly damp. Leftover liquid can be used again.
Third Stage: Mix your dyes
Put on the mask and gloves provided in the kit. Use a separate container, such as an old pitchers, for mixing each dye. Prior to mixing in all the water, add just a little water to the dye and the urea, just enough to make a well mixed paste. Once well mixed, add the water and mix thouroughly. Next, put some of the mixture in the bottle. Repeat with the other colors.
The suggested quantities for mixing per shirt are 1/2 cup warm water, 1 teaspoon dye, and 2 teaspoons of urea.
For twelve shirts, you will therefor need 6 cups of warm water, 4 tablespoons of dye, and 8 tablespoons of urea.
Fourth Stage: Applying the dye
Squirt the dye out of the bottle onto the fabric, about 1/2 cup per color should do.
Fifth Stage: Bag and Wait
Place the fabric in a plastic bag and wait at least 6 hours, ideally 24 hours for better results. The colder the temperature the longer you should wait.
Sixth Stage: Launder
Mix the 1/4 cup of the special laundry detergent provided with hot water in your washing machine. Remove the fabric from the bag, leave the fabric bound, and rinse the fabric in cold water. After, unbind the fabric and rinse in warm water until the water coming off the fabric is mostly clean. Last, place the fabric in the washing machine and complete a full cycle.
