How to Tie Dye pt.2

Now our Tie Dye has spent the night all wrapped up in it's cocoon and it is time for the reveal.
Put on your vinyl gloves and take the plastic off the shirt.It is important to rinse the shirt out very well in warm water...

Dunk...take the rubber bands off...

Oh Boy! Look at that. Mardi Gras greatness.

After you have rinsed and rinsed most of the dye out you can put it in the normal wash.

I hang the shirts up to dry after rinsing

(do not let them touch each other).

Once they are dry I throw them all in the wash together.
Here is the shirt I made for this tutorial...fab huh?!It is now available for purchase in the shop.

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Have a terrific day!

How to Tie Dye pt.1

Good Morning!
Today I am attempting my first tutorial and the super fun project is...
Tie Dyeing a t-shirt and since Mardi Gras is approaching fast, the colors I am using are Deep Purple, Forest Green, Bright Green, Palomino Gold, and Bright Yellow. I have found many different techniques to use but after dyeing over 1000 shirts and yards and yards of fabric, I have developed the best way for me and that is what I am going to demonstrate...My Way!

You will need the following
1. Dye ( we use Dharma Trading co. brand) follow the brands recipe and I highly recommend mixing the dye up the day before.
2.Urea to mix with the dye
3. Plastic squeeze bottles
4.Water
5.vinyl gloves
6.Rubber gloves
7.Rubber bands
8. Plastic sheeting cut into large squares
9. Lots of paper towels
10. Soda Ash
11. Funnel, tbsp.,tsp., 1 cup measuring cup.
12. 5 gallon bucket or a large bowl/bucket
13. 100% natural fiber shirts...cotton, hemp,bamboo, silk etc.
I thought I had taken a photo with everything you will need but I left out the paper towels,bucket, funnel,measuring spoons,and soda ash. So make sure you check the list above.

First you need to mix up your soda ash and warm water soak.

I use about 3 gallons of warm water for 10 to 15 shirts approx.,

The ratio is 1 cup soda ash to 1 gallon water. So if you have 3 gallons of water mix in 3 cups soda ash. Put on those rubber gloves, mix it up and immerse all the shirts in the water. Let them soak for at least an hour, I have left them in overnight and they are fine.

Put on those rubber gloves again and ring out the shirt you plan to dye first.

At this point you will need to put on the vinyl gloves and lay the shirt out flat on a clean table. You will need those rubber bands too...lots of them. about 8 to 10 per shirt.

Now there are many different wonderful ways to tie a shirt and create fabulous designs but today I am going to show you the simple "Swirl".

Pinch the shirt where you want the center of the swirl to be placed. I recommend a bit higher than center because no one wants a swirl right on their tummy. At least I don't. If you are going to be dyeing multiple shirts it may be best to "tie" them all up before you begin dyeing. You want to keep your work area clean while tying or you will get dye where you don't want it. Just don't let the shirts dry out.

OK...

Pinch and start to twist. As easy as that.

As you twist you need to guide the fabric with your other hand. The more folds you have the more detail you will have.

At this point just hold the center and wrap the rest of the shirt around.

Like this...

Now secure it with rubber bands like so...

Now comes the fun and sometimes unpredictable part, applying the dye.

I am not including how to mix the dye because different colors have different recipes and it would be best for you to follow the dye's instructions. If you have any trouble with the recipe just leave me a comment. I am happy to help.

Ok...so your dye is all mixed up and in squeeze bottles. I recommend the high quality bottles Dharma Trading Co. has opposed to the mustard/ketchup kitchen type bottle. I tried the condiment bottle initially and they leaked all over...major bummer.

Get those paper towels and lay your tied shirt on a piece of plastic sheeting.

So now start dyeing! To get a swirl shape you just think of it like a pie.

You can dye 3 pieces to the pie or 6 or whatever...3 pieces is the one I am doing today. So first I am starting with the green piece of pie.

Now you will need to keep those paper towels handy...real handy.

I am starting with Bright Green. Carefully squirt the dye into a pie shape from the center to the outer edge. Use your paper towel to wipe up any stray squirts or drops and the dye will run along those rubber bands and go where you don't want them, so dab the dye off the bands as you go.

Here is my first pie, first side.

Now you will think that you are putting too much dye on...so flip it over
and you will see it didn't even go through. So add dye to the flip side. Like so...

Take a peek underneath at the first side and you will see it is now running all the way through.

So wipe the plastic off with the paper towel and flip the shirt over.

I am jumping ahead just a bit here... I have added Forest Green to both sides and Palomino Gold to the original side leaving some white between the bright green and Palomino Gold because I want to blend the gold and green together a bit with the Bright Yellow. It is good to keep in mind the colors that will be created when two colors meet. For instance if you use blue next to red than you may have purple where they touched. I have a very hard time with our Independence day shirts due to this.

Flip it over again, wiping the excess dye off the plastic with every flip.

Here I am adding the Palomino Gold to the flip side.

With this flip you can see I am starting to get a "muddy puddle". You need to try and keep this wiped up or the muddiness will soak into your shirt.

Add the Bright Yellow...oh yeah!

Muddy puddle alert!

Deep Purple is up next... first side...

Deep Purple flip side...

Ok now... you need to know the importance of achieving the "muddy puddle" or not. If you apply so little dye that you never actually create a puddle then you will have a lot more white showing than you may want. If you Super Soak it with dye you will have very little white showing on the end. It is really a matter of how much white/contrast you want. Just remember it will take more puddling than you think.

I have quite a puddle here with all the colors combined and I do not want the shirt to spend the night in a Muddy puddle.

So wipe and flip,wipe and flip,wipe and flip...

Until your shirt is only puddling about this much when it sits.

Wrap it up in the plastic sheet and secure with rubber bands.

Now when I make multiple shirts at once I lay them out on plastic on a industrial cookie sheet, not wrapped in plastic, to prevent puddling and washing all that plastic is not fun for me.

You will have no problem with them wrapped as long as you leave it laying flat, if the bundle is held sideways the dye will move and drip, you may end up with purple on your yellow which is nothing like chocolate in your peanut butter (remember that commercial?)

It is important that the shirt doesn't dry out and it will need to sit at least 8 hours but I leave mine overnight.

next post- How to Tie Dye pt. 2

Happy Day!

A bit of Christmas

Although I didn't blog about anything Christmasy this year, I did make a few new things for the Holidays. One exciting new project was a custom order for Tie Dyed Dresses. They came out so cute, I am going to start carrying them in the shop very soon.
I made a few new pillow covers for the living room...
Don't you just love that fabric? I do.Lovey Dovey Peace and Joy... I may keep this one out all year.
To add some texture I whipped up a crocheted pillow cover made of sweet little Granny's on the front and...
stripes on the back. Yes, that is Rugby's freckled booty.

This beauty was a "hand me down" unfinished project from my Aunt.

At some point she painstakingly wove a whole lot of ribbons into a fabulous top so I just slapped a plain white back on it and Voila!

Gorgeous, no?

and there is more!

"til then XOXO

Mardi Party Animals

Check out these Beauties! I was lucky enough to sell these two sweet party animals a couple of Jazzy Mardi Gras Tie Dyes and guess what? They sent a photo of their day at the parade. So Cool. If you read this girls...Thanks! You are fabulous models ;0)

Little Shop of Rainbows

I have just a bit of an update on some of the fantastic hand dyed items I have for sale at the Shop. Rainbows of many types seem to be our best seller and they happen to make me feel giddy so I have pushing the hubby/tie dye master to produce rainbow after rainbow.

Newborn rainbow...

toddler rainbow...

and we have just added an adult small Rainbow Tee and will be adding a broader range of adult sizes soon.

This one makes me so happy! I mean just look at it... it is so friendly and bright. I have two rainbow swirl tees in size 2T. I just mailed off two of them for a return customer with twins! Eeekk...so cute, I hope I get a photo.

Hope you have a lovely day. J

Let the Good Times Roll

2010 seems like it is going to be a great year for Pasquali Rumpus. Business in the Tie Dye department has been picking up and receiving photos from our customers has turned out to be one of the most enjoyable things.

Look at this sweet little man below, his name is Jack. He is just 8 months old and he is already modeling.The Rainbow Onesie his Mama bought from us looks fantastic on him. Just look at those thighs... I love 'em.
We had the pleasure of making two matching Tie Dyed Mardi Gras Onesies for a pair of twins who will be sporting them in a Parade in Mobile Alabama.
Meet Savannah and Grayson...


OH my...
they are too cute, way too cute!



Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!

Tropical Color Splash

It has been awhile since my last post. It has been ...umm...kinda rough around here, but things are smoothing out now and I am back on track.

I have finished a baby quilt that I am so proud of. It was done just in time for a sweet little baby girl born on Nov.10th to some very special friends of ours.

The colors in it just POP! I used the colors Turquoise, Hot Pink, Blood Orange as inspiration. The piecing was very simple just rectangles sewn together. I only had to use the seam ripper half a dozen times to line up the seams perfectly...I have a hard time with perfect. I LOATHE the seam ripper. My niece calls it a "unstitcher". Who wants to waste time unstitching? Not me. I did though, I ripped out the mistakes and fixed them... like a good girl.

Doesn't it look warm and tropical?

The tiny new babe is also getting these precious candy colored tie dyes.

My husband lovingly tied and dyed them with her in mind, he put the bit of blue on the sleeves in honor of her middle name "Snow".

What do you think of the astro turf background?

Our yard is no longer the lush photo spot is was, so my clever hubby came up with this idea. Now I just need a sun lamp, lounge chair...and a Margarita.

Yeah! That's the ticket.