Tie first or Soda soak first? Tie-Dye Party

[dianaj]

Hi,
I'm having a tie dye party this weekend and I wondering if people had preferences.  Does it work out better to have people tie first and then soda soak or to soda soak first and then let people tie with gloves?

Thanks!!
Diana

[ktaltre]

It's hard for me to tie with gloves on, even nitril (sp?) or latex gloves.
And tying soda soaked fabric with bare hands is hard on your skin.
Why don't you have the soda ash in the dye mix?

Steve's recent answer in the "tie dye workshops" section, "pricing for a tie dye workshop", states
"I would also recommend using activated dyes. Have the dyes mixed in bottles ahead of time and have a solution of concentrated sodium carbonate  to add to the bottles immediately before use. This will eliminate the process of soaking and wringing out the shirts."

I think that's a really good solution to the tie dye party or workshop, soak or not, dilemma. Thanks Steve!
k. taltre

[Jaja]

I think that if you don't want to use activated dye method you can tie slightly water damped shirts (spray with water). After having tied them, soak it for a while into soda solution, "wring" soda solution out (rather press that wring) and apply dye.

[dianaj]

Thanks so much everyone.

I made more dye then I need so I don't want to activate it.  I was hoping to put leftovers into the fridge.

I guess tying first makes the most sense.

Thanks again,
Diana

[steve]

You would be best served by activating on the fly by adding a concentrated solution of soda ash to dye solution as needed.

[dianaj]

Ooh Steve that's a good idea.  I had my party already but I'm going to do that next time. 

It got a little hectic because I was frantically soaking tied shirts at the same time people wanted me to help them with their designs.  It was also confusing figuring whose shirts were whose as I didn't have a good labeling system.  All those spirals in the buckets looked the same and needed some decoding. 

Cutting out the whole soaking step would have been much easier and now that I've done the party I have a better idea how much dye to make up.  I had so much dye left over because I was paranoid we would run out of a certain desired color.  As it turned out nobody would have cared we were having so much fun.

Thanks for all your help!

Diana

[deb]

Sharpies for labeling tags before soaking helps a lot!

[steve]

Even easier is to get some safety pins and cut up a tyveck mailer into squares. Write initials or name on the tyvek with a sharpie and pin to the shirt. The tyvek label will withstand the entire process including washing and drying.