Dye over bleach on black t-shirt

More experimenting with fabric.   I used the t-shirt I first used bleach on to create a design.  For the bleaching,  I used a tie-dye twirl a couple of times before using a foam form.  That was a year ago.   Recently I decided that I didn't like the halloween look of the black with the orange that showed up.   I didn't want to leave the bleach on long enough to turn it white because black is a hard color to totally bleach out.   I used some blue dye from Dharma Trading, which was mostly aquamarine.   It turned out OK.   Thinking about a darker blue but I'll let it sit for awhile before I decide.

Experimenting with tie dye again . . . trying something other than white as a base too.

From top to bottom:  grey, light orange, light purple.

Those old t-shirts come in handy . .   I get to practice dyeing and I can recycle some old things back into my wardrobe.

Some other Tie Dye Efforts on a full t-shirt - Bulls Eye, Swirl, Twirl

I watched a lot of youtube videos while exploring the How-to's of tie dying and design.  Some are produced by companies and some by individuals.   There is a lot of different ideas that people have. Some are really good and some are just OK.

I still have some to try but I have posted some below that I have already tried.

 

  

Shibori dyeing

Along with the swirls, twirls,  bullseye, black holes and folding techniques, I stumbled across some youtube videos using Shibori techniques. These don't show t-shirts but that is my media.  I've done a few at this point.

I started out using a swim noodle cut down to a manageable size.    

 I've progressed since then to PVC pipe in 2" and 3" diameter sizes.   Sort of heavy the stuff that I bought, but now I have some thinner pipe that my brother cut for me and an interesting type to try soon.

I've gotten some good results and people really like the ones that I actually allow them to see.  Yes, I've had some that were a bit of a failure but you do learn by trying.

Some of my first ones:

Tried different techniques like the diagonal fold then roll and scrunch, rolling horizontally, rolling vertically.

reverse dying - using bleach to create patterns

While digging around on youtube finding some great videos on tie-dye and shibori techniques, I also found videos on reverse dye techniques using bleach.

I took an old large sized faded out black t-shirt and experimented.   I've been wearing the final results with lots of compliments.

 The first stage.   Did a swirl scrunch then used a roller to sweep on the bleach. Not bad.

But I decided to do it again then when i have unfolded and rinsed, I felt I needed more.   So I dug around until I found the wall decorating stuff.   Always good to repurpose things, right?

And the final results!!!!   I like it  :-)

Attempting the Black Hole - more tie dye!

I found this really cool tie dye t-shirt and I had to try it.   I've tried a few times but haven't managed to get results like this guy is getting.   A genius of tie-dye.  :-)

My first attempt was rather a washed out look but someone I know liked it . . . so it has found a new home.

Then I tried again with 2 more attempts at the same time.

After wrapping and applying the dye.  Results are below for these 2 t-shirts. Black is a tough color to get to turn out properly.   I finally got some True Black from Dharma Trading.  Still needs some work but the results turned out well. These have both have found new homes and that was  Egypt!!!

Here's one of the black hole t-shirts that made it to Egypt!!!   :-)

Tie Dye Adventures from 2015 - Tanks for the Memories!

Last summer, after sitting around a bit reading and watching TV after my "retirement" from HP, I decided to try my hand at some tie dye.   A few months before, I had gotten interested in batik but hadn't followed through on it.    I thought I should probably start out working with dyes in small steps.   Tie dye seemed to be an easy place to start as I had found a kit at Michael's . . . yep, that summer time project for kids was well stocked in the craft areas of stores.   One thing lead to another and soon I was buying better dyes from Dharma Trading along with different products to use (detergent to use to remove sizing, soda ash).  Then I started to buy better quality cotton t-shirts after using a lot of my old t-shirts for practice.   I got into production of tank tops when I found some cheap cotton men's tanks at Target.   Needless to say, I have been wearing a lot of tie dye and giving some as presents to friends and some (but not many, lol) I've been selling to make some money to pay for supplies.  Sometimes I've had good results and sometimes I've had some failures .   but it is all a learning
process.

Tanks a lot!!!

 

 

I developed much better technique and processes as I went along.   I spent a lot of time reading on Dharma Trading and a few other places.   Below you can see how I started to rinse the t-shirts after they were dyed and left overnight (about 24 hours) for the dye to set.