Project: F@H Tie-dye Shirt

M

MN Scout

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jan 26, 2003
Messages
4,726
Goal: Get "F@H" on a shirt.
Method: Tie-dye

Background:
I'm going to an annual family gathering this weekend. The weekend has turned into a craft gathering in a way - cards, beading, chainmaille, stamping, tie-dye. My family introduced tie-dye to the weekend last year. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to try and get some text on a shirt, and it gives me an opportunity to talk about F@H to more people.

Planning:
The dye that I'm using is Dharma Fiber Reactive Procion Dyes. Very high quality and does not fade. Just make sure that you are dyeing a 100% cotton tea-shirt. I love this stuff.

Text and tie-dye normally don't go together, but I'm going to try. I could dropper the dye onto the shirt, but I'm going to go the folding route. I haven't got my final shirt yet, but did do some planning on an old junk shirt. I wanted to work with a shirt and see how it shaped and folded.

If you want dye on specific locations, I find the best way is to draw on it with Crayola washable markers. That way when you are folding you can get the shirt folded in a way that makes dyeing in the specific areas easier.

junk_shirt_marker.jpg



That's it for now. I have to get to the location. I'll get pictures up of the whole process after the weekend.

Things I made last year:
A rainbow shirt. This one took a bunch of sewing to get the shirt ready for dye and very exact dye placement.
last_year_shirt_MN_Scout.JPG


Pillow case:
last_year_pillow_case_MN_Scout.JPG
 
I love that rainbow shirt! :)

I also didn't know you could do text in tie-dye... :confused:
 
We'll see... I got some ideas on how to make it work. I'll show you all the results no matter what.
 
Is there any way to use a product that will not allow the die to be soaked into the fabric, so you could in effect write what ever you want on the shirt with the product, die the shirt then wash it and have F@H or whatever left as the original shirt color?
 
BLUEFISH44 said:
Is there any way to use a product that will not allow the die to be soaked into the fabric, so you could in effect write what ever you want on the shirt with the product, die the shirt then wash it and have F@H or whatever left as the original shirt color?
Click to expand...

Vaseline ?
 
Another way would be to use something to trace the ink like a pipette but then the fabric will determine if it works or not (some will absorb too much, thus spreading the ink too broad).
 
If you use one fabric where you know it won't smudge (over-absorb), you could use that to create a stencil and then press that onto the final shirt, squeezing out as much dye as possible. I'm just theorizing, I don't know if it will work...
 
How about liquified beeswax applied to the text so that it can not absorb the dye? If just a little bit does it would look cool.

 
@ MN Scout

I forgot to mention that the rainbow shirt is very cool. Nice work on that.

 
MN Scout said:
Things I made last year:
A rainbow shirt. This one took a bunch of sewing to get the shirt ready for dye and very exact dye placement.
last_year_shirt_MN_Scout.JPG
Click to expand...

Did you fold up the shirt using a ruler and place it in a tray, then dye the upper part? That looks *awesome*
 
WWAAAAAY BBAAAACCCKKK, when we first did tye dye we used quality parafin wax to do lettering and stuff. then used it to keep the next layer of dye where we wanted it, used really good dye and washed it a few times after finishing to remove the wax, and dried it with some towels to absorb the rest. It also made it a little faded so it didn't make you look like a week end hippie.

Man I can't believe I can actually remember that :D:D
 
racercarl said:
WWAAAAAY BBAAAACCCKKK, when we first did tye dye we used quality parafin wax to do lettering and stuff. then used it to keep the next layer of dye where we wanted it, used really good dye and washed it a few times after finishing to remove the wax, and dried it with some towels to absorb the rest. It also made it a little faded so it didn't make you look like a week end hippie.

Man I can't believe I can actually remember that :D:D
Click to expand...

you are sooooo dated now! :p

 
Me likey! And I actually like it better with the incomplete "@", because if anyone stops and reads it they are more likely to notice it and ask questions this way. (IMO, of course.)

I'm not a huge fan of dark colors in my own T-shirts, but of course I have to respect the [H] theme. :) If you decide to make another radial type (your original rainbow, or the blue-with-a-little-white one that's hanging far right in your last pic, I'll pay for a duplicate. :) I'll even pay quite a bit extra for the rainbow one, because you mentioned the extra work involved- I love that shirt!
 
The F@H shirts don't have to be dark, but if I make a F@[H] then they probably should be. Any color could surround the text. Making an incomplete @ sign would be much easier.

On to cutting out sponges...
 
This is so cool!

I had no idea how much time can go into making the cool designs.

When you say you sew your shirts... I am still a little confused. Do you hand sew? Or machine?

And you sew in order to accordian the shirt?

I know this is what helps make the rainbow design so distinctive and aligned... but I don't really know how you did it.

Where did you learn all about tye dyeing anyway?

:D Thanks!
 
The sewing is done by hand. The sewing helps to control the accordion fold. The string is more of a guide with the shirts. It helps all of the accordions be exactly the same width and height. The string is loose at first and then when you work on folding it you end up really only using 2 or 3 inches. I'll try and see if I can get a vid of this.

I learned first from doing some tie-dye in Scouts. That was the simple spiral, stripes, amoeba, and rocks methods. Then we bought our own dye from Dharma three years back and have tried more things. We haven't gotten into buying how-to videos or the like. I like to imagine the final design I want and then figuring out how to fold it.

Last night the stamping worked well.:cool: I did the letters horizontally this time.
 
This is what I came up with for my second try:

final_results.jpg


I created a stamp with sponges. Stamped F@H on the shirt. Let sit for 12 hours, and then rinse the dye out, and dry. Then I banded the shirt up to create the effect around F@H, dyed it, let sit 12 hours, rinse, and finally dry. So the process is double for this shirt. I couldn’t find any way to stamp and dye the whole shirt at the same time while not messing up the letters.

Process:
1. Cut the sponges.
cutting_letters_1.jpg

cutting_letters_2.jpg

cutting_letters_4.jpg


2. Hot glue the letters on. Unfortunately one the sponges dried fully in a couple weeks the sponges began to pull off the board.
putting_on_letters_03.jpg

putting_on_letters_08.jpg


3. Mix the dye.

mixing_dye_1.jpg

mixing_dye_4.jpg

mixing_dye_5.jpg


4. Ink the stamp.
inking_fah_stamp_1.jpg

inking_fah_stamp_2.jpg


5. Stamp the shirt.

stamping_fah_on_shirt_08.jpg

stamp_result_4.jpg


6. Put the shirt in a bag for 12 hours. The shirt needs to stay moist and not dry out. Help is always nice while doing all this.

putting_shirt_in_bag_to_stay_moist_1.jpg


7. Rinse the shirt until the lose dye comes out of the white areas.

rinsing_out_shirt_after_fah_stamp_07.jpg

rinse_till_white.jpg


8. Wash the shirt on warm with Synthrapol if you have any.
9. Dry the shirt.

10. Band the shirt in a manner you please for the second application of dye. I protected the already dyed text with a layer of saran rap strategically placed inside the shirt and on the top of the shirt. I did two banding styles: tufts and amoebas/scrunching.
shirts_banded_and_ready_for_second_round_of_dyeing.jpg


11. Dye, let sit, rinse, and dry again.

12. Final:
final_results.jpg
 
LOVE THEM!!
PLEASE!!
Four things in order of importance:
Run this through Kyle and get his blessing for a second shirt
Use a tshirt with a pocket - WE ARE GEEKS, we need pockets
Go into production
Sell me four, that way I could alternate with my old [H] folding T's and cover a week.
 
Gnewbury, are you thinking of F@[H], and the [H] is the reason I should ask Kyle's blessing? I like the F@H because it is evenly balanced from left to right. If I were to do F@[H], would you like the brackets placed like in the forum logo or would you like them to grip the H from top and bottom.

If I could get enough preorders I'd consider doing a batch of the F@H / F@[H] shirts. I'd like to do these in large batches of at least 15, so I will need preorders -- the process takes so long that I can't do one shirt here and there. After my expenses of shirts, dye, and time I think this is how I will work it:

All shirts will be a nice heavy 6.1oz 100% cotton t-shirt. A pocket will cost extra. [H]orde members will get 20% off before shipping.
[H]orde members (after discount):
$16 + shipping for a shirt without a pocket
+$2.5 for a shirt with a pocket

Non-[H]orde members:
$20 + shipping for a shirt without a pocket.
+$3 for a shirt with a pocket.

The shirts will be dyed with the professional Procion Fiber Reactive dyes that fade very very little over the life of the shirt. The pocket shirt will be sewn with nylon thread that will not take dye, and the standard shirt will have been sewn with cotton thread that will dye - this is the thread visible on the bottom of your shirts, and the bottom of the sleeves. Before I send the shirts out they will be washed once in the awesome Synthrapol detergent, and then a second time. Just to be careful after you wear them around and show them off to your friends, wash them alone the first couple times. I won't be held responsible if any small amount of dye comes off on your other clothes.

What do you think? I arrived at these prices after crunching the numbers and looking around and seeing that all of the customized, non spiraled, tie-dyes are above $20. I want to cover all my expenses, and give you all a great deal. The earliest I'd be able to process a batch of orders is the weekend of December 8th, I'd need all those orders to be placed by November 29, so I can order the blank t-shirts and have them sent to me.

Please PM me if you have questions, or if you would like to order a shirt. If there is interest, I'll create a thread in the DC FS/T forum.


 
Wow, awesome job, I was expecting some hippy crap:) I would rock one if they could be made.)
 
I got the ok from Kyle for one run of the F@[H] shirts. F@[H] is a one-time deal. I'll post up a mock-up of the F@[H] on a shirt Sunday evening.
 
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