Do It Yourself Tiedye Alt Spirals

Assemble You will need: Tie dye KIT, Or... Trash bags to protect working surfaces plastic grocery bags to store your creations in. Paper Towels to clean up and wrap your work in. Rubber Bands to tie up your shirt with Rubber Gloves to protect your hands, Eye protection, and clothing protection Plastic Bucket to soak your shirt in. Chop Sticks to spiral shirts with. Dye squirt bottles Dyes, Fixative, detergent, Clean Shirt to make colorful	Treat! In the bucket, Soak in the right fixative, for the fiber reactive dye, that is a solution of one cup Soda Ash, or Sodium Carbonate in a gallon of water. Wring out the shirt really really well so that there will be space in the fabric for the dye. Prepare! Use only the right fabric for the dye you are using and follow the directions. I use a fiber reactive dye. So It won't react with synthetic fibers Nylon, Polyester, Spandex etc. But will work on any plant fiber based fabric, Cotton, Rayon, Hemp, Linen, bamboo, etc. Cover your work surfaces with plastic! Cover your hands with gloves eyes with glasses and wear an apron, or smock. Mix your dyes and fixative just before your tie dye session. Dyes don't keep well.
Step 1 spread out Spread out the shirt on a clean surface. If there are stains or spots from other tie dyes, they add character, Groovy! I will show you the folding for a spiral or starburst. Other patterns require folding in different ways to create different patterns.	Step 2 Spiral! Select the spot on the shirt that you want the central of your spiral or starburst and push with a stick. I use a chop stick and spin to start the spiral. Turn and watch that the folds that start to wrap around the chop stick don't get to big and fold over other folds. Manually manipulating the folds to keep them all the same size until the entire shirt is wrapped up.
Step 3 Tie! Using rubber bands, tightly band the spiral crossing the center like you cut a pizza! use 3 rubber bands for 6 sections, or 6 rubber bands for 12 sections for a tighter wrap and crisper white sections.	Step 4 Apply Color! Using a squirt bottle upside down apply color directly to the shirt. Using squirt bottles saves dye, and allows for more precise dye application than dunking.
We apply the dye to the edge of the fold, and require the capillary action of the fabric and the amount of dye to bring the dye into the center of the folds. Use more dye for more color, Less dye for more white space. If you need to check, use a chop stick and gently separate the folds to see how far your dye has made it into the folds.	Once you finish one side of the design, FLIP the shirt and do the opposite side of the shirt. You can chose to do the same, OR do something different. In this sample, both sides are done exactly the same.
In This Example, I used different colors on opposite sides of the tyed up shirt. The three primary colors on one side, Secondary colors on the other. So Red, Yellow and Blue each had three sections of dye on the top side. I use a little darker color on top of the light color to make a nice variation of shades. I leave a blank space between each section of color, but the primaries can blend if you wish. On The back side using the secondary colors between the primarys that make that color. So Orange goes between the Red and Yellow. The Green between the Blue and Yellow, and the purple between the Blue and Red. Careful, if the secondary colors blend, they will make brown.	Primary/ Secondary Spiral
Green and Black Starburst	Starburst A Starburst is a bit different, but only in the dyes applied. This shirt is tied up in exactly the same way as the spiral. One side is dyed with one color, the other side is dyed with a second color. In this example, Green is used on one side with a bit of dark green on top to give nice variation in tones. On the back side, the light green again, with Black! Making a nice dark pattern that is very bold. Try it from the corner of the shirt to hide the spiral pattern and it is just a bunch of cool lines going across the shirt.
Rainbow Spiral with Blue Starburst	This pattern combines Both the spiral, and starburst. On one side i did the rainbow spiral. On the second side, I used just blue. Be careful when applying your second side over the opposite color so you don't get too much blending of those colors to make brown. In This example the color opposite blue is orange, If I had used LOTS of blue over the orange sections, and they had blended, they would make brown. ick. i dodn't like brown in my colorful designs :-) When you are finished, wrap up the shirt and place in plastic so it won't dry out and wait....

1. Wait 24 hours! The toughest part as you want to see your new creation! Your Tie Dye needs to be kept from drying out, and left to sit for the dye’s chemical reaction to take place. If you don’t wait a good 12+ hours the colors will not be as strong. Waiting several days is just fine.	2. Rinse in cool water! Wearing rubber gloves, and protective clothing, remove the rubber bands. Rinse out the shirt in comfortable running water until there is little color coming out of the garment.
3. Wash in HOT water! After rinsing, wash the Tie-Dye with only other Tie-Dye garments in the hottest water you can. If LOTS of dark colors were used in dyeing your garments you may need to wash more than once for the water to be clean of excess dye. Only a small amount of detergent is necessary.	4. Finish with a good fabric Softener and dry. Add a good fabric softener. The Tie Dye process is hard on the fabric, a good fabric softener will help restore the soft ‘hand’ of the cotton. Dry and your shirt is ready to wear!
5. Send John and Sarah a photo In your new Tie Dye! at: sarah@NHTieDye.com! and we will put you on our website! Congratulations you have a cool NEW shirt!