finished tie-dye

I'm really impressed with the way my tie-dye came out! The orange I used on the long sleeve shirt was a little funky but it fades after I wash it once, so the color near the neck shouldn't be so vibrant. The green shirt was already green but it had a few spots on it so I tie-dyed a spiral to cover them up. The other two are Gilly Hicks shirts that didn't fit a friend of mine any more, so I figured I could try to make them wearable again. 

tie-dye DIY for beginners

I'm gonna let the shirts sit outside overnight so the colors sink in, but here's a walkthrough of the dying process. I soaked the shirts in warm saltwater for about 20 minutes before I started, I've bought and used soda ash previously and there isn't a noticeable difference in the quality of the dye later on. 

Then I tied the shirts with rubber bands, sometimes I follow video tutorials if I want to go for a specific look but this time I folded one into stripes, one the traditional spiral, one a bull's eye, and the last one was a bit random. 

Then comes the fun part! I don't use buckets of dye, rather I saved a bunch of plastic water bottles and I've been re-using those for a while. They're easy to store when I'm not in the dyeing mood (the dye doesn't go bad or anything, I just leave the bottles in my garage so they don't make a mess in the house). 

Then simple pour as much as your heart desires! I don't wear gloves since semi-dyed hands don't really bother me, but I would definitely suggest wearing old clothes for this type of project. I'll post pictures of the finished product some time tomorrow!