Tuesday 25 May 2010

5 minute t-shirt trick with Dell Stewart

Here's a quick DIY from Dell Stewart: how to tie-dye t-shirts using bleach! It's quick, easy and not very toxic at all. Perfect for a Tuesday evening activity.

What you need:

  • Bleach (Dell uses White King)
  • An old t-shirt
  • Some string
  • A plastic bucket
  • Rubber gloves
  • Access to a sink


Step 1:
Get your t-shirt and twist it like a sweet danish roll or an escargot pastry (either counter clockwise or clockwise, depending on which way you'd like your swirls to go).



Step 2:
Secure your twist with a bit of string by wrapping it around the t-shirt so that the fabric stays put.



Step 3: Put your gloves on!! (This is important, hence the two exclamation marks) This is because you'll now be working with bleach.



Step 4: Pour the bleach into the bucket first. Just a little bit will do!



Step 6: Once you've got your bleach in the bucket, pop the t-shirt in and give it a poke around so that it soaks up the bleach. You'll begin to see the bleach taking effect almost instantly!



Dell went easy on the bleach, but it doesn't mean you have to!



Step 7:
After a couple of minutes, take the t-shirt out, undo the string and give it a rinse in the sink. The bleach smells a bit, so make sure you're in a well ventilated area.


Step 8:
Hey presto! The finished product. Now you have some snazzy new threads for that Tuesday night on the couch.


Thanks to Dell for showing us this great DIY!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

tie die home clothes. For a happy home clothes party.

Sheeprustler said...

I have done this with fabric. It is wonderful to watch dark coloured fabric during this process because you never know what colour will be revealed! Great for clothes or textile art projects, and you can guarantee it will be unique. If you aren't after a specifically swirly shape, scrunching any which way creates interesting effects.