Need help w/Dick Blick strings for school musical costume

[delurking101]

I am looking for advice from someone familiar w/the Dick Blick tie dye strings.  I searched the forum but didn't find anything about this product.

I have to tie dye a shirt for my daughter for a school musical and DB has donated shirts and strings.  The other children will use random colors/designs but my DD's character is supposed to have black spots.  I have a white shirt and black strings so...

1) How do I tie the shirt to make the end result look "spotted"?  I have found directions for large circle/starburst but not multiple spots.

2) Once I boil the tied shirt, will the strings only dye the area they are tied to?  Will I end up w/a white shirt w/black patterns or will the whole shirt turn black?  I guess I'm worried it will bleed and I'll have a big mess after 30 min. boiling time.

I am hoping someone here has used this product before.  Otherwise I guess I'll have to do a test run but I'm afraid I'll run out of string.  Plus my daughter isn't going to be thrilled about a black shirt when all the other kids are going to have cool colorful tie dyed tops so I really don't want to have 2 of these things (the trial run and the real deal) hanging around.

Thank you so much and I apologize if I didn't put this in the right spot.

[Jaja]

I have never used strings from DB, but otherwise I was experimenting alot, so maybe I can give you some useful hints.

1) wash the shirts to have it free of aperture etc., hang it to dry
2) tie the strings in place where you want them to be
3) soak only the tied part of the shirt in salty water, squeeze it so it's not dripping (rubber gloves on). Then wrap in in plastic bag (microtene) and tie the bag tightly with regular string - this way you separate inner (colored) part from outside parts and vice versa
4) after completion of all ties, boil the whole thing in clear water -maybe some die comes out of bagged ties, in such case check
 if the water is still clear...you may replace it with new hot water in such case.
5)when done untie it and send us a picture

Jaja