One color spiral how do I get this look

[Anna Mudrik]

Hi
I'm new to this whole tie dye thing but I have been talked into trying, and really need some help.  I have all the supply from colorado wholesale (dye, soda ash, urea).  I need to dye tshirt to look like my sample.  can someone give me some tips and also what about a setup for dying in large quailties.

Help
Anna

[pburch]

This one's super-easy (which is why you can buy large numbers of that design cheaply at wholesale). All you do is tie the shirt as for a typical spiral (see the Spiral Fold Tutorial), then drop it into an immersion dyebath, or squirt it all over with a single dye color after presoaking in soda ash in the usual way for tie-dye. If you want to do a dozen or more just alike in the same color, use the washing machine method to dye the tied shirts all at once. Try doing just one first to check your spiral-tying skills.

Paula

[Anna Mudrik]

The t-shirt I tried turned out great but what about doing 50/50 hoodie?

[Jeau]

Hi Anna--you can certainly die a 50/50 item of clothing, but the polyester fabric won't bond with the dye, only the cotton, so it'll be a lot lighter...

[ecilA]

50/50 isn't going to hold the dye nicely, generally speaking, the less cotton (you are talking poly/cotton right?) in the blend, the blurrier the shirt will become, you lose crispness, briteness and definition.  Now you could use the hoodie and it might be "ok", it just will lack in some ways.  Keep in mind that a hoodie is pretty thick, you'll need to be careful to get enough dye on there or you'll have a lot of white splotches (of course, fwiw, you can use one color on one side and "clear dye" on the other and use white as one of your colors).

I'd look for a hoodie with 85% cotton minimum but you can find 100% (just likely to be exensive).

[Anna Mudrik]

Thanks for all your feedback, not sure what Im doing wrong with the tshirts now but they are not coming out like the first one. Here is what im doing tying a damp tshirts into a spiral then dipping it into the dye after I take it out of the dye I let it sit for 20 min then I pour soda ash on the shirt and let it sit for 20 min then I wash it.  they are coming out mudding looking. What am I doing wrong?

[pburch]

After you get the dye and the soda ash into the shirt, leave them together to react with the cotton overnight, or at least six hours, at 70°F.

Are you using 100% cotton now?

Paula

[Anna Mudrik]

no Im using 50 cotton/ 50 ploy.

[pburch]

That explains your problem with muddiness. You should use 100% cotton, or at least 80% cotton. The polyester in the poly/cotton blend does not take the dye, but just stays white, so it is impossible to get strong, true colors with 50% polyester. You can dye 50% polyester/50% cotton, but the colors will always be much lighter and duller than if you were dyeing 100% cotton.

Paula