Tie Dye

 

   My friend Dana is more than a friend. She's my sister and I introduce her as such. The fact that we do not share the same genetics to me is irrelevant. She's my sister in every way that counts.

   One of the things she does is move me out of my comfort zone. I can always depend on her to introduce me to knew things that most of the time I find that I like. For my birthday she gives me craft type items and then spends a day with me teaching me how to do the craft. She is the one who taught me now to knit and crochet. She also introduced me to jewelry making. I still have some beads that are waiting to be made into a necklace. 

   A couple weeks ago we decided to have a craft day. She decided we were going to tie dye. I needed to get some white cotton shirts to dye.  I got four of them one for my Mom and Dad, one for C and another for me. I had never tie dyed anything before, but assumed we would be dipping things into various colours. I was a bit excited about this. One thing I always wanted to do was hand dye some yarn and knit something with it. This would be my chance to play with colouring cloth.

   I got to Dana's and found her hard at work with a couple shirts of her own. She had drawn on them with wash off marker and was tracing her work with glue. When she dyes the shirts, the pattern will show up as the dye will not stick to the glue. She explained to me that first I was to fold the shirts in various ways and secure them with rubber bands. 

   I wanted to do a large heart on the front of one of the shirts. I traced half a heart on the shirt and then had to fold it so the heart would show. This was not an easy thing to do. It took me about seven or eight tries.  I tried different kinds of folds on the other shirts. One of them I just did what ever I felt like doing. I wished I'd looked at some origami patterns just to get some ideas for folding.

   After that was done we put the shirts into a solution that changes the pH of the cloth. It allows the dye to take to the fabric better. While they were soaking, we got some ice and some lunch. The ice was going to be used to in dyeing process.

   Once we got done eating, we took the shirts outside. Dana had several colours of dye powder for us to use. I laid my shirts out on racks and put the dyes I wanted on the shirts. Then Dana put tin foil around the shirts and put ice on them. The ice would melt and make patterns on the shirts. Dana would bring the shirts to work for me once the ice had melted and they had an initial rinse.

   Once I got them, I'd have to rinse them again to get as much dye off as I could. Then I would have to hand wash each shirt with detergent. This was to get as much excess dye off as possible. Then the shirts could be wash and would be ready to wear.

   Last week I rinsed and washed all the shirts. For a first time I don't think they look too bad, although it was clear that I used too much dye.  I'm looking forward to wearing mine and I hope the one I got for my Mom fits her.

   Most of all I had fun learning something new. I don't think I am a creative person, but there is something about doing crafts with Dana that seems to bring something out in me. I wonder what other crafts we could do?