RIT Tie Dye Tutorial and Legos!

We recently had some friends over for a tie dying extravaganza.  At approximately the same time (you know, relatively speaking) I also got a bee in my bonnet about the garage mess and lack of lego organization.  I'm not saying I personally did anything about the legos, but I did set things in motion.  Which is practically the same as actually doing it.

If you're wondering about the tie-dye, we went old school (skool?) and used RIT.  The internet told me (after I purchased everything, of COURSE) that RIT is horrible, no-good, and very bad for tie-dying.  But it's what we always used growing up - and I wasn't about to go out and rebuy all our supplies.  In any case, I'm glad we stuck with the RIT.  I think things turned out well and even though the computer proclaimed you could absolutely NOT do bottle dying with it, we did anyway.  And it turned out great.  And while I'm totally not a how-to-crafty-mama blogger, I'm going to share my secrets, just this one time.

Two things to be warned of --- 1. kids suck at winding rubber bands.  If you have young children, expect to do their shirts.  Which is annoying and takes a really long time.  2. Husbands also suck at it.  Expect to do theirs as well.

Also - I cannot speak to the longevity of the shirts, as ours have only been washed twice, BUT most people complained their shirts faded immediately with the first wash.  So far ours have not.  Maybe eventually?  Maybe soon?  I don't know.  But right now I'm happy with them!

(scroll to the bottom for a step-by-step tutorial)

SINGLE COLOR DYEING:

For our first batch of shirts we did "family colors" - we picked orange (go Gators!) and our friends picked green (go a different team!).  Here's what we did:

1. Wet all your shirts and wring them out so they're wet but not sopping.  Rubber band the shirts in your desired pattern.

2. In a large bucket add at least 1/2 a bottle of RIT dye (found in the laundry section of Walmart and most grocery stores), 1 cup salt, and 1 tablespoon liquid laundry detergent.  The more dye you add, the more vibrant your color will be (we added closer to a whole bottle).  That said, it will also take a LOT MORE RINSING. 

3. Add one tea kettle's worth of boiling water.  Stir until salt and dye is all combined and dissolved.  Now add a gallon of the hottest water you can get from your tap.  Stir things up and add your shirts.

4. Take turns stirring the shirts pretty much constantly for at least 30 minutes (we lost track of time and did it for more like 90 minutes).

5. Take your shirts out and give them a good rinse.  (Like a really really good rinse.  You can see with our orange shirts I was a little lazy on this step and I think that's why the color ran more into the rubber banded areas than with the other shirts).

6. Remove the rubber bands and rinse again until the water runs clear.  Some people swear at this point you should let them dry overnight, but I don't have that kind of patience.  I put mine in the washer on cold with the extra rinse cycle.  I also added about 2 cups of vinegar to the wash in addition to the detergent.

7. Dry and enjoy! (Caveat - for the first few washes you're going to want to wash these separately because they will continue to bleed for a while)


MULTICOLOR DYEING:

1. Wet all your shirts and wring them out so they're wet but not sopping.  Rubber band the shirts in your desired pattern.

2. Lay your shirts on a raised rack (if you put them straight on the ground or a table the colors will pool and the result will be brown vomit).

3. Fill plastic condiment bottles 1/2 way with dye, then add a tablespoon of salt, and a drizzle of laundry detergent.  Add 1/4 bottle boiling water and 1/4 bottle VERY hot tap water.  Shake to combine ingredients.

*WARNING - the hot liquid will make the condiment bottles leaky - wear gloves and have paper towels handy!*

4. Immediately use the hot dye bottles to squirt your shirts.  Make sure they get saturated with color.  If you think there's enough... add a little bit more.  A good tip is to try to keep progressive colors near one another so they look nice even if they run a bit (i.e. red next to orange, rather than yellow next to purple).

5. When your shirt is soaked with dye, wrap it up tightly in saran wrap and toss in your microwave for 3 - 4 minutes.  (RIT dye is wet heat set, so this step is *very* important!).  Be very careful removing the shirts (we used oven gloves and just tossed them into a bucket) they will be insanely hot.  Like think hot lava + ghost peppers.  Set the bucket aside and allow them to cool.  This will take a lot longer than you expect.  Relax.  Have a beer.  Or three.

6. Take your shirts out, unwrap them and give them a good rinse.  (Like a really really good rinse.  You can see with our orange shirts I was a little lazy on this step and I think that's why the color ran more into the rubber banded areas than with the other shirts).

7. Remove the rubber bands and rinse again until the water runs clear.  Again, some people swear at this point you should let them dry overnight, but I don't have that kind of patience.  I put mine in the washer on cold/cold with the extra rinse cycle.  I also added about 2 cups of vinegar to the wash in addition to the detergent.

8. Dry and enjoy! (Caveat - for the first few washes you're going to want to wash these separately because they will continue to bleed for a while)

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