If your current isolated point of view is experiencing 48 hours in a 24-hour long day, let me put it out there; you are suffering from acute boredom. I can't plan the entire day for you but I might have a recreational activity in my bag of things-to-do-at-home to fill those lazy afternoons you spend moping around from one room to another in the search of an objective that would drive you out of this doldrums.
Summon your high-spirited, colourful self and get ready to Surprise! Surprise! #TieNDye the hell out of your boring white t-shirt sitting in the closet waiting to be chosen over your blacks and reds.
But first...
What Is Tie-Dye?
This well-known apparel pattern is no news to fashion enthusiasts but for the rookies, this might come off as a bit of a newfangled marvel of the week.
The process of tie-dye typically consists of folding, twisting, pleating, or crumpling fabric or a garment and binding with string or rubber bands, followed by application of dye(s).
How To Make A Dye At Home?
Let me tell you one thing, it's certainly no rocket science that goes into making your own dye at home.
Image Courtesy: Instructable Crafts
Things You Need:
- A plastic bottle with a squeeze cap
- Food colour (As per the availability)
- Warm water
Process:
1. Take half a cup of warm water in the plastic bottle with a squeeze cap.
2. Add about 8 drops of the food colour you want to use.
3. The proportion to make the dye remains the same; 8 drops of food colour in every 1/2 cup of water.
Side tip: Use different bottles for different colours. In case you just have a single bottle at home, try using one colour first and use it for another after a thorough wash.
How To Tie-Dye At Home?
Tie-dye fashion has a nostalgic touch that comes around in every decade but amidst all the surprises 2020 gave us, this print will be your something old and trendy. And I get the picture that to create something this colourful from scratch can't be easy but it's a genius skill that will stay with you even after the lockdown is over. It's always good to have creative fashion skills at the back pocket, just in case.
Things You Need:
- Protective gloves
- Apron
- Rubber Bands/Thread strings
- Large ziplock bag
- Vinegar
- A tarp or plastic cover
- White t-shirt
- A container, big enough for your t-shirt
Image Courtesy: Instructable Crafts
Process:
1. Take the container and add half part water half part vinegar in it. Soak your white t-shirt in the same. Remember use as little material as you can use.
Image Courtesy: Instructable Crafts
2. Rinse and spread it out on the tarp or plastic cover to avoid in spillage on the floor. You got to keep your mom's happy too.
Image Courtesy: Instructable Crafts
3. Gather the rubber bands according to the design you want to execute. You'll find some ideas down below. The whole game starts when you tie your t-shirt in a certain way to get a design at the end.
Image Courtesy: Instructable Crafts
4. Carefully pour the colours dye where needed. Be thorough and patient with this step.
Image Courtesy: Instructable Crafts
6. Put your dyed t-shirt in a ziplock bag and leave it out in the summer wind for a night or so.
Image Courtesy: Instructable Crafts
7. Rinse again and Voila!
Image Courtesy: Instructable Crafts
Side tip though: You might have to rinse the t-shirt once before actually wearing it. Now food colour dye may not last long but it will be good practice for when you actually use real dye colours to get a snazzy teeshirt.
Tie-Dye Designs You Can Easily Pull Off At Home
I've picked out some easy DIY tie-dye designs that you can easily make work with at home. Here we go!
Nebula
Why spend on some expensive multi-colour crumple tee when you can make one at home. A fairly simple and elegant tie-dye technique you'll love once mastered.
Steps:
- Take your white t-shirt and crumple it real good.
Image Courtesy: Pinterest
- Tie it with rubber bands or strings randomly.
Image Courtesy: Pinterest
- Splash your dye on the crumpled tied. You can be as random with splashing as you want.
Image Courtesy: Pinterest
Side tip: More the rubber bands, more white space in the t-shirt.
Spiral
Give people something to turn around and look at. I say a tie-dye spiral tee is an absolute one way to go about it.
Steps:
- Flat spread your t-shirt and find the centre point. Use a fork to rotate the t-shirt clockwise. Twist until you get a spiral.
Image Courtesy: Pinterest
- Once you get a spiral, tie 6 rubber bands over the twisted t-shirt.
Image Courtesy: Pinterest
- Splash the dye over and about and wait for the magic.
Image Courtesy: Pinterest
- Voila!
Image Courtesy: Pinterest
Bull's Eye
Rest assured, this tie-dye design hit right where it's supposed to, in the eyes of the beholder.
Steps:
- Pick your centre of t-shirt and tie a rubber band at a distance.
Image Courtesy: Pinterest
- Keep tying the rubber band until you reach the length.
Image Courtesy: Pinterest
- Now splash the dye thoroughly and wait...
Image Courtesy: Pinterest
A piece of advice though, If there is just one tee to experiment with then try your hand on a simple handkerchief to get the hang of it.
Life! don't seem colourless now, does it?