One of the posts I "Stumbled" upon was this one on ice dyeing at Bloom, Bake & Create. I knew I needed to try it right away. I showed Katie, and she was dying to try it, too.
As everyone knows I never actually follow directions, so you might want to check out the inspiration post.
We got four bags of Tulip Permanent Fabric Dye (link is for Michael's but we just got ours at Walmart, about $2.50 each I think). Pink, Royal Blue, Lime Green, and Black. A five pack of white t-shirts. And a bag of ice of course! I have done 3 shirts and a full fitted sheet and I have more than half left)
As you can see you need some sort of a rack to put your fabric on and something to catch the drips. I used a piece of wire shelving we had removed from a closet and a big rubbermaid container.
Twist, tie, rubberband, do whatever you want to do to your fabric/t-shirts.
Cover completely with ice.
Sprinkle with the dye. I used a baby spoon, a couple scoops each, but I might have been a bit too liberal.
Cover and let the ice melt. You are supposed to wait 24 hours but I only waited about 12 hours on the shirts.
After the ice melts it will look something like this. Notice the clumps of un-dissolved dye. I am way too cheap to waste that much dye ;) And all the drippings ... they make purple in case you were wondering.
The three t-shirts turned out great, but I wish I hadn't used so much black. After I rinsed them until the water ran clear I hung them to dry. After they were totally dry I threw them in the washing machine by themselves on a low load. I added about a cup of vinegar to help set the color (I heard this somewhere and it has never let me down). Use your regular detergent as well, you don't want your shirts stinking of vinegar. Dry on high heat to really bake in that color (yeah, its technical).
See, purple. I went in search of something to put in the drippings and I came up with this full flat sheet. It had a white on white pattern of flowers. The flowers themselves stayed white making it even better. I didn't let it soak very long. I should have. left it longer for a deeper color.
And since I did the flat sheet I thought it only right to do the fitted sheet. I just twisted the fabric then rolled it into a huge rosette shape. Covered with ice and sprinkled on the dye... and waited 24 hours... although it nearly killed me.
I even placed a sheet of my journal underneath to catch some of the drips.
And the finished fitted sheet. Perfect for Katie's bed.
This is a great way to breathe new life into some of those sheets and shirts that might have become a little dingy but are still in good shape. I can't wait to do some lengths of fabric to play with!!
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