Drawing With Dye

Due to the lack of cool plus-size blouses at a lot of retail stores, I took matters in my own hands! Dharma Trading has a nice collection of plus-size dyeable blouses that work beautifully with our Tulip One-Step Dyes. Here is the finished look of a blouse I made this week while here at the iLoveToCreate studios! 

Read on below to see how I made it!

Supplies:

One cotton, rayon or silk blouse. Here is where I bought mine!

Tulip One-Step Tie-Dye Kit (Note: The kits come in a variety of sizes and colors, so choose whichever on you like best!)

Plastic table cloth

First thing, wash and DRY your shirt! What makes this technique work is that we are "drawing with the dye on a dry shirt. This will make the designs have defined lines. If you wet the shirt and draw, it will bleed, which is another cool look, but I really wanted a crisp look. OK  -so you simply mix the dye bottles according to the package directions, shake until all the powder is dissolved. 

Line your work surface with the table cover. 

Next, tip the bottle over and draw on the fabric just like you were using a giant pen!

I didn't really have a style in mind, I just kinda doodled. Now that I know how to control the flow of the liquid, next time I'll plan my design out. But for here, I just made random swirls and giant flowers.

There comes a point when you have to stop - especially if you want the white to show as the background. I was drawing away and my friends came by and said, "STOP, Kathy! It's done!" So I stopped!

Hang and let dry for six hours for the dye to set, then wash in cold water by itself, hang dry!

And here we go - it does blend a little bit, but I like that all the color stayed in place!

I think next I might draw over the designs with markers, like I did here: