How can I achieve this effect?

[Toolgrrl]

http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=9388255
This is a tshirt that I got at a thrift store that I then embellished with reverse applique.  Now I want to be able to achieve a similar dye effect on other tshirts or garments. Is this tie dye? How would I get the white halo-ing between the two different colors? Thanks for your help in advance...

[Rebekah]

Hey, that's pretty great!  I want to know too! 

[tiedyejudy]

Is this tie dye? How would I get the white halo-ing between the two different colors?

I can't tell if this is hand or commercial dyed, but I can suggest 2 possible ways to get a similar effect:
1) use soy wax to batik areas of an undyed shirt, then dye the shirt using LWI or vat dyeing technique.  When you rinse out, you would have white areas where the soy wax resisted the dye, and could hand paint with thickened dyes of a contrasting color
2) Use dishwashing gel with bleach, thiox, or thickened bleach to discharge the dye from a hand or commercially dyed shirt in areas to create the organic shapes.  The only problem is you won't get pure white in those areas, so it would depend on what you wanted to end up with... if you were going to over dye the discharged areas, this would be okay.  I'm attaching a picture of a shirt I did where I scrunch dyed it, then when it was dry I applied dishwasher gel with bleach, let it dry, rinsed it out, then overdyed the whole shirt with several colors.  Not the exact result you might want, but a demonstration of the use of a discharge technique to add interest to your shirt.
 

Judy

[Toolgrrl]

Thanks for your input! 
Do you have any suggestions for randomly applying the wax or the bleach? The effect here seems much more organic than someone applying either with a brush...

[Darlene]

Definitely, this is hand-dyed.

Your white haloes are simply the resist lines from the string where it was tied, yes, in a very organic and free form matter.

Results will vary upon many, many variables : what kind of string was used, how tightly the string is wrapped, was it soaked in soda ash water before tieing or after it was tied, which set of hands did the ties etc. , but basically you'd go about it like this:

1) start with a white shirt, the thinner the better for sharp lines.
2) wet it, wring it out well
3) scrunch it
4) tie up little bits of it, very very tightly (these will be your red splotches and some of the white)
5) lace up the whole thing, not so tightly this time so you have a bundle of shirt easier to handle
6) dunk the whole thing in your base color (here, orange)
7) let sit to batch ... or not (either will work; the effect will be similar though probably different)
8 ) if you let it set, rinse it out, if you didn't you can got straight to the next step
9) dye again : over-dye the little bits sticking out that you tied up only with the dark red
10) let the whole thing sit to batch and cure; don't rush it -- a full 24 hours at room temp is better for a clean washout
11) after 24 hours, rinse out the whole thing-- do not untie it yet
12) when water runs clear, untie and ... see what you got!
13) finally, wash in hot water with synthapol or mild soap

As mentioned, your mileage and results might vary, but this gives you some idea as to what kind of work went into this. I hope it help! (fantastic creative work in your etsy store, by the way!)

~Dar
Shibori Borealis
http://shiboriborealis.com/

[Toolgrrl]

Thanks Darlene-
I appreciate the step-by-step instructions, especially since I'm such a newb.
So it sounds like I need to approach this systematically & try different variables. Let me just clarify a couple of things:
1) Should I soak it in soda ash water before putting it in the dye, or can I use dye that already has soda ash mixed in?
2) after dunking in the base color, "let sit to batch" - how long?
3) Do I dunk the whole thing in the over-dye, or just use a squeeze bottle to apply the dark red?

Thanks again! I really love the atmospheric look of tie dye as a background or component of my applique work. The danger is that I will get too involved in the dyeing that I won't have enough time for the sewing! 

[Darlene]

... Let me just clarify a couple of things:
1) Should I soak it in soda ash water before putting it in the dye, or can I use dye that already has soda ash mixed in?
2) after dunking in the base color, "let sit to batch" - how long?
3) Do I dunk the whole thing in the over-dye, or just use a squeeze bottle to apply the dark red?

Sorry for the delay, but it's Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. I'm under the effect of too much turkey!

1) Just a suggestion, but I think I would use dye that had the soda ash added to it instead of soaking the whole thing in soda ash water. I personally think you end up with better white resists that way.
2) Always let sit to batch a bare minimum of 4 hours, unless you're going to add a heat source to expedite the process.
3) Over dye only the areas where you want red, in this case the little bits that are sticking out that you tied off. You could apply with a squeeze bottle, or for better control a brush. Small foam tipped brushes are great if you can find them. I know Dharma sells them.

Just have fun and don't go into your project with too many preconceived expectations. You will find that dyeing is indeed addictive, so you might very well get side-tracked from your other projects until you work this out of your system. 

Darlene
http://shiboriborealis.com

[Jaja]

To me it seems liek they have started with orange t-shirt, tie it tightly in a scrunch manner, discharged, washed and dyed fuchsia w/o manipulation of tieing threads.

[fiberartist219]

Here's how I think they did it:

They dyed it the dark red color.
They scrunched it up really tight. Then they discharged the red off of it. After thoroughly rinsing, they dyed it orange.

I've done some discharging in my day, and it does halo like that when you overdye.